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Church Periodical Club 

of Mar/land 

409 N. ClnrlGs St. 

Baltimoi-e, Md. 



NATURAL LAW 



IN THE 



SPIRITUAL WORLD 



BY 

HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E.; F.CS, 



New York 

HOME BOOK COMPANY 

45 Vesey Street 



V^^.5 ii 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE, 

Preface 5 

IntroductiojN^ 25 

Biogenesis 75 

Degeneration 107 

Growth 131 

Death 149 

Mortification 179 

Eternal Life 203 

Environment 247 

Conformity to Type 277 

Semi-Parasitism 305 

Parasitism 327 

Classification 351 



PREFACE. 

No class of works is received with more 
suspicion, I had ahnost said derision, than 
those which deal with Science and Religion. 
Science is tired of reconciliations between two 
things which never should have been con- 
trasted ; Religion is offended by the patronage 
of an ally which it professes not to need ; and 
the critics have rightly discovered that, in 
most cases where Science is either pitted 
against Religion or fused with it, there is some 
fatal misconception to begin with as to the 
scope and province of either. But although no 
initial protest, probably, Avill save this work 
from the unhappy reputation of its class, the 
thoughtful mind will perceive that the fact 
of its subject-matter being Law — a property 
peculiar neither to Science nor to Religion — at 
once places it on a somewhat different footing. 

The real problem I have set myself may be 
stated in a sentence. Is there not reason to 
believe that many of the Laws of the Spiritual 
World, hitherto regarded as occupying an en- 
tirely separate province, are simply the Laws 
of the Natural World ? Can we identify the 
Natural Laws, or any one of them, in the 



6 PREFACE. 

Spiritual sphere ? That vague lines every- 
where run through the Spiritual World is 
already beginning to be recognized. Is it pos- 
sible to link them with those great lines run- 
ning through the visible universe which we call 
the Natural Laws, or are they fundamentally 
distinct ? In a word, Is the Supernatural 
natural or unnatural ? 

I may, perhaps, be allowed to answer these 
questions in the form in which they have an- 
swered themselves to myself. And I must 
apologize at the outset for personal references 
which, but for the clearness they may lend to 
the statement, I would surely avoid. 

It has been my privilege for some years to 
address regularly two very different audiences 
on two very different themes. On week days 
I have lectured to a class of students on the 
Natural Sciences, and on Sundays to an audi- 
ence consisting for the most part of working 
men on subjects of a moral and religious char- 
acter. I cannot say that this collocation ever 
appeared as a difficulty to myself, but to certain 
of my friends it was more than a problem. It 
was solved to me, however, at first, by what 
then seemed the necessities of the case — I must 
keep the two departments entirely by them- 
selves. They lay at opposite poles of thought ; 
and for a time I succeeded in keeping the 
Science and the Religion shut off from one 
another in two separate compartments of my 
mind. But gradually the wall of partition 
showed symptoms of giving way. The two 
fountains of knowledge also slowly began to 



PREFACE. 7 

overflow, and finally their waters met and min- 
gled. The great change was in the compartment 
which held the Religion. It was not that the 
well there was dried ; still less that the ferment- 
ing waters were washed away by the flood of 
Science. The actual contents remained the 
same. But the crystals of former doctrine were 
dissolved ; and as they precipitated themselves 
once -more in definite forms, I observed that the 
Crystalline System was changed. New chan- 
nels also for outward expression opened, and 
some of the old closed up ; and I found the 
truth running out to my audience on the Sun- 
days by the weekday outlets. In other words, 
the subject-matter Religion had taken on the 
method of expression of Science, and I dis- 
covered myself enunciating Spiritual Law in 
the exact terms of Biology and Physics. 

Now this was not simply a scientific color- 
ing given to Religion, the mere freshening of 
the theological air with natural facts and illus- 
trations. It was an entire re-casting of truth. 
And when I came seriously to consider what 
it involved, I saw, or seemed to see, that it 
meant essentially the introduction of Natural 
Law into the Spiritual World. It was not, I 
repeat, that new and detailed analogies of 
Phenomena rose into view — although material 
for Parable lies unnoticed and unused on the 
field of recent Science in inexhaustible pro- 
fusion. But Law has a still grander function 
to discharge towards Religion than Parable. 
There is a deeper unity between the two King- 
doms than the analogy of their Phenomena — a 



8 P EFFACE. 

unity which the poet's vision, more quick than 
the theologian's, has already dimly seen : — 

** And verily many thinkers of this age, 
Aye, many Christian teachers, half in heaven, 
Are wrong in just my sense, who understood 
Our natural world too insularly as if 
No spiritual counterpart completed it. 
Consummating its meaning, rounding all 
To justice and perfection, line by line, 
Form by form, nothing single nor alone, 
The great below clenched by the great above.*' ^ 

The function of Parable in religion is to 
exhibit " form by form." Law undertakes the 
profounder task of comparing " line by line." 
Thus I^atural Phenomena serve mainly an 
illustrative function in Religion. Natural Law, 
on the other hand, could it be traced in the 
Spiritual World, would have an important 
scientific value — it would offer Religion a new 
credential. The effect of the introduction of 
Law among the scattered Phenomena of Nature 
has simply been to make Science, to transform 
knowledge into eternal truth. The same crys- 
tallizing touch is needed in Religion. Can it 
be said that the Phenomena of the Spiritual 
World are other than scattered? Can we shut 
our eyes to the fact that the religious opinions 
of mankind are in a state of flux ? And when 
we regard the uncertainty of current beliefs, 
the war of creeds, the havoc of inevitable as 
well as of idle doubt, the reluctant abandon- 
ment of early faith by those who would cherish 



1 Aurora Leigh. 



PEEFACE. 9 

it longer if they could, is it not plain that the 
one thing thinking menare waiting for is the 
introduction of Law among the Phenomena of 
the Spiritual World? When that comes we 
shall offer to such men a truly scientific the- 
ology. And the Reign of Law will transform 
the whole Spiritual World as it has already 
transformed the Natural World. 

I confess that even wlien in the first dim 
vision, the organizing hand of Law moved 
among the unordered truths of my Spiritual 
World, poor and scantily-furnished as it was, 
there seemed to come over it tlie beauty of a 
transfiguration. The cliange was as great as 
from the old cliaotic world of Pythagoras to the 
symmetrical and harmonious universe of New- 
ton. My Spiritual World before was a chaos 
of facts ; my Theology, a Pythagorean system 
trying to make the best of Phenomena apart 
from the idea of Law. I make no charge 
against Theology in general. I speak of my 
own. And I say tliat I saw it to be in many 
essential respects centuries behind every de- 
partment of Science I knew. It was the one 
region still unpossessed by Law. I saw then 
why men of Science distrust Theology ; why 
those who have learned to look upon Law as 
Authority grow cold to it — it was the Great 
Exception. 

I have alluded to the genesis of the idea in 
my own mind partly for another reason — to 
show its naturalness. Certainly I never pre- 
meditated anything to myself so objectionable 
and so unwarrantable in itself, as either to read 



10 PBEFACE. 

Theology into Science or Science into Theology. 
Nothing could be more artificial than to attempt 
this on the speculative side ; and it has been a 
substantial relief to me throughout that the 
idea rose up thus in the course of practical 
work and shaped itself day by day uncon- 
sciously. It might be charged, nevertheless, 
that I was all the time, whether consciously or 
unconsciously, simply reading my Theology into 
my Science. And as this would hopelessly 
vitiate the conclusions arrived at, I must acquit 
myself at least of the intention. Of nothing 
have I been more fearful throughout than of 
making Nature parallel with my own or with 
any creed. The only legitimate questions one 
dare put to Nature are those which concern 
universal human good and the Divine interpre- 
tation of things. These I conceive may be 
there actually studied at first-hand, and before 
their purity is soiled by human touch. We 
have Truth in Nature as it came from God. 
And it has to be read with the same unbiassed 
mind, the same open eye, the same faith, and 
the same reverence as all other Revelation. 
All that is found there, whatever its place in 
Theology, whatever its orthodoxy or hetero- 
doxy, whatever its narrowness or its breadth, 
we are bound to accept as Doctrine from which 
on the lines of Science there is no escape. 

When this presented itself to me as a method, 
I felt it to be due to it — were it only to secure, 
so far as that was possible, that no former bias 
should interfere with the integrity of the results 
—to begin again at the beginning and recon- 



P BE FACE. 11 

struct my Spiritual World step by step. The 
result of that inquiry, so far as its expression 
in systematic form is concerned, I have not 
given in this book. To reconstruct a Spiritual 
Religion, or a department of Spiritual Religion 
— for this is all the method can pretend to — on 
the lines of Nature would be an attempt from 
which one better equipped in both directions 
might well be pardoned if he shrank. My 
object at present is the liumbler one of ventur- 
ing a simple contribution to practical Religion 
along the lines indicated. What Bacon predi- 
cates of the Natural World, Natura enim non 
nisi parendo vincitm\ is also true, as Christ had 
already told us, of the Spiritual World. And 
I present a few samples of the religious teach- 
ing referred to formerly as having been pre- 
pared under the influence of scientific ideas in 
the hope that they may be useful first of all in 
this direction. 

I would, however, carefully point out that 
though their unsystematic arrangement here 
may create the impression that these papers 
are merely isolated readings in Religion pointed 
by casual scientific truths, they are organically 
connected by a single principle. Nothing could 
be more false both to Science and to Religion 
than attempts to adjust the two spheres by 
making out ingenious points of contact in detail. 
The solution of this great question of concilia- 
tion, if one may still refer to a problem so 
gratuitous, must be general rather than par- 
ticular. The basis in a common principle — the 
Continuity of Law — can alone save specific 



12 PREFACE. 

applications from ranking as mere coincidences, 
or exempt them from the reproach of being a 
hybrid between two things which must be 
related by the deepest affinities or remain for- 
ever separate. 

, To the objection that even a basis in Law is 
no warrant for so great a trespass as the in- 
trusion into anotlier jleld of thought of the 
principles of Natural Science, I would reply 
that in this I find I am following a lead which 
in other departments has not only been al- 
lowed but has achieved results as rich as they 
v/ere unexpected. What is the Physical 
Politic of Mr. Walter Bagehot but the exten- 
sion of Natural Law to the Political World? 
What is the Biological Sociology of Mr. 
Herbert Spencer, but the application of Nat- 
ural Law to the Social World? Will it be 
charged that the splendid achievements of 
such thinkers are hybrids between things 
which Nature has meant to remain apart? 
Nature usually solves such problems for her- 
self. Inappropria^te hybridism is checked by 
the Law of Sterility. Judged by this great 
Law, these modern developments of our knowl- 
edge stand uncondemned. Within their own 
sphere the results of Mr. Herbert Spencer are 
far from sterile — the application of Biology to 
Political Economy is already revolutionizing 
the Science. If the introduction of Natural 
Law into the Social sphere is no violent con- 
tradiction, but a genuine and permanent con- 
tribution, shall its further extension to the 
Spiritual sphere be counted an extravagance? 



PREFACE. 13 

Does not the principle of Continuity demand its 
application in every direction ? To carry it as a 
working principle into so lofty a region may 
appear impracticable. Difficulties lie on the 
threshold which may seem, at first sight, insur- 
mountable. But olDstacles . to a true method 
only test its validity. And he who honestly 
faces the task may find relief in feeling that 
whatever else of crudeness and imperfection 
mar it, the attempt is at least in harmony 
with the thouglit and movement of his time. 

That these papers were not designed to ap- 
pear in a collective form, or indeed to court 
the more public light at all, needs no dis- 
closure. They are published out of regard to 
the wish of known and unknown friends by 
whom, when in a fugitive form, they were re- 
ceived with so curious an interest as to make 
one feel already that there are minds which 
such forms of truth may touch. In making 
the present selection, partly from manuscript, 
and partly from articles already jpublished, I 
have been guided less by the wish to constitute 
the papers a connected series than to exhibit 
the application of the principle in various 
direction. They will be found, therefore, of 
unequal interest and value, according to the 
standpoint from which they are regarded. 
Thus some are designed with a directly prac- 
tical and popular bearing, others being more 
expository, and sligTitly apologetic in tone. 
The risk of combining two objects so very 
different is somewhat serious. But, for the 
reason named, having taken this responsibility, 



14 PREFACE. 

the only compensation I can offer is to 
indicate which of the papers incline to the 
one side or to the other. " Degeneration," 
" Growth," " Mortification," " Conformity to 
Type," " Semi-Parasitism," and " Parasitism " 
belong to the more practical order ; and while 
one or two are intermediate, " Biogenesis," 
" Death," and " Eternal-Life ! " may be offered 
to those who find the atmosphere of the former 
uncongenial. It will not disguise itself, how- 
ever, that, owing to the circumstances in which 
they were prepared, all the papers are more 
or less practical in their aim ; so that to the 
merely philosophical reader there is little to 
be offered except — and that only with the 
greatest diffidence — the Introductory chapter. 
In the Introduction, which the general read- 
er may do well to ignore, I have briefly stated 
the case for Natural Law in the Spiritual 
World. The extension of Analogy to Laws, 
or rather the extension of the Laws them- 
selves, so far as known to me, is new ; and I 
oannot hope to have escaped the mistakes and 
misadventures of a first exploration in an un- 
surveyed land. So general has been the sur- 
Tey that I have not even paused to define 
specifically to what departments of the Spir- 
itual World exclusively the principle is to be 
applied. The danger of making a new princi- 
ple apply too widely inculcates here the utmost 
oaution. One thing is certain, and I state it 
pointedly, the application of Natural Law to 
the Spiritual World has decided and neces- 
sary limits. And if elsewhere with undue 



PBEFACE. 15 

enthusiasm I seem to magnify the principle at 
stake, the exaggeration — like the extreme am- 
plification of the moon's disk when near the 
horizon — must be charged to that almost nec- 
essary aberration of light which distorts every 
new idea while it is yet slowly climbing to its 
zenith. 

In what follows the Introduction, except in 
the setting, there is nothing new. I trust 
there is nothing new. When I began to fol- 
low out these lines, I had no idea where they 
would lead me. I was prepared, nevertheless, 
at least for the time, to be loyal to the method 
throughout, and share with Nature whatever 
consequences inight ensue. But in almost 
every case, after stating what appeared to be 
the truth in words gathered directly from the 
lips of Nature, I was sooner or later startled 
by a certain similarity in the general idea to 
something I had heard before, and this often 
developed in a moment, and when I was least 
expecting it, into recognition of some familiar 
article of faith. I was not watching for this 
result. I did not begin by tabulating the doc- 
trines, as I did the Laws of Nature, and then 
proceed with the attempt to pair them. The 
majority of them seemed at first too far removed 
from the natural world even to suggest this. 
Still less did I begin with doctrines and work 
downwards to find their relations in the nat- 
ural sphere. It was the opposite process en- 
tirely. I ran up the Natural Law as far as it 
it would go, and the appropriate doctrine sel- 
dom even loomed in sight till I had reached 



16 PREFACE. 

the top. Then it burst into view in a single 
moment. 

I can scarcely now say whether in those 
moments I was more overcome with thankful- 
ness that Nature was so like Revelation, or 
more filled with wonder that Eevelation was 
so like Nature. Nature, it is true, is a part of 
Revelation — a much greater part doubtless than 
is yet believed — and one could have anticipated 
nothing but harmony here. But that a de- 
rived Theology, in spite of the venerable 
verbiage which has gathered round it, should 
be at bottom and in all caidinal respects so 
faithful a transcript of " the truth as it is in 
Nature" came as a surprise, and to meat least 
as a rebuke. How, under the rigid necessity 
of incorporating in its system much that 
seemed nearly unintelligible, and much that 
was barely credible, Theology has succeeded 
so perfectly in adhering through good report 
and ill to what in the main are truly the lines 
of Nature, awakens a new admiration for those 
who constructed and kept this faith. But 
however nobly it has held its ground, The- 
ology must feel to-day that the modern world 
calls'^for a further proof. Nor will the best 
Theology resent this demand ; it also demands 
it. Theology is searching on every hand for 
another echo of the Voice of which Revelation 
also is the echo, that out of the mouths of two 
witnesses its truths should be established. 
That other echo can only come from Nature. 
Hitherto its voice has been muffled. But now 
that Science has made the world around articu- 



PREFACE. 17 

late, it speaks to Religion with a twofold pur- 
pose. In the first place it offers to corroborate 
Theology, in the second to purify it. 

If the removal of suspicion from Theology 
is of urgent moment, not less important is the 
removal of its adulterations. These suspicions, 
many of them at least, are new; in a sense 
they mark progress. But the adulterations 
are the artificial accumulations of centuries of 
uucoutrolled speculation. They are the neces- 
sary result of the old method and the warrant 
for its revision — they mark the impossibility 
of progress without the guiding and restrain- 
ing hand of Law. The felt exhaustion of the 
former method, the want of corroboration for 
the old evidence, the protest of reason against 
the monstrous overgrowths which conceal the 
real lines of truth, these summon us to the 
search for a surer and more scientific system. 
With truths of the theological order, with 
dogmas which often depend for their existence 
on a particular exegesis, with propositions 
which rest for their evidence upon a balance 
of probabilities, or upon the weight of author- 
ity; with doctrines which every age and 
nation may make or unmake, which each sect 
may tamper with, and which even the individ- 
ual may modify for himself, a second court 
of appeal has become an imperative necessity. 

Science, therefore, may yet have to be called 
upon to arbitrate at some points between con- 
flicting creeds. And while there are some 
departments of Theology where its jurisdiction 
cannot be sought, there are others in which 
2 



18 P EFFACE. 

Nature may yet have to define the contents as 
well as the limits of belief. 

What I would desire especially is a thought- 
ful consideration of the method. The appli- 
cations ventured upon here may be successful 
or unsuccessful. But they would more than 
satisfy me if they suggested a method to others 
whose less clumsy hands might work it out 
more profitably. For I am convinced of the 
fertility of such a method at the present time. 
It is recognized by all that the younger and 
abler minds of this age find the most serious 
difficulty in accepting or retaining the ordinary 
forms of belief. Especially is this true of 
those whose culture is scientific. And the 
reason is palpable. No man can study modern 
Science without a change coming over his view 
of truth. What impresses him about Nature 
is its solidity. He is there standing upon 
actual things, among fixed laws. And the 
mtegrity of the scientific method so seizes him 
that all other forms of truth begin to appear 
comparatively unstable. He did not know 
before that any form of truth could so hold 
him ; and the immediate effect is to lessen his 
interest in all that stands on other bases. This 
he feels in spite of himself; he struggles 
against it in vain; and he finds perhaps to his 
alarm that he is drifting fast into what looks 
at first like pure Positivism. This is an in- 
evitable result of the scientific training. It is 
quite erroneous to suppose that science ever 
overthrows Faith, if by that is implied that 
any natural truth can oppose successfully any 



PREFACE. 19 

single spiritual truth. Science cannot over- 
throw Faith ; but it shakes it. Its own doc- 
trines, grounded in Nature, are so certain, 
that the truths of Rehgion, resting to most men 
on Authority, are felt to be strangely insecure. 
The difficulty, therefore, which men of Science 
feel about Religion is real and inevitable, and 
in so far as Doubt is a conscientious tribute to 
the inviolability of Nature it is entitled to 
respect. 

None but those who have passed through it 
can appreciate the radical nature of the change 
wrought by Science in the whole mental atti- 
tude of its disciples. What they really cry 
out for in Religion is a new standpoint — a 
standpoint like their own. The one hope, 
therefore, for Science is more Science. Again, 
to quote Bacon — we shall hear enough from 
the moderns by and by — " This I dare affirm 
in knowledge of Nature, that a little natural 
philosophy, and the first entrance into it, doth 
dispose the opinion to atheism ; but, on the 
other side, much natural philosophy, and wad- 
ing deep into it, will bring about men's minds 
to religion." ^ 

The application of similj^t smiilihus curantur 
was never more in point. If this is a disease, 
it is the disease of Nature, and the cure is 
more Nature. For what is this disquiet in 
the breasts of men, but the loyal fear that 
Nature is being violated? Men must oppose 
with every energy they possess v/hat seems to 

1 '' Meditationes Sacroe," x. 



20 PEE FACE. 

them to oppose ,the eternal course of things. 
And the first step in their deliverance must be 
not to " reconcile " Nature and Religion, but 
to exhibit Nature in Religion. Even to con- 
vince them that there is no controversy be- 
tween Religion and Science is insufficient. A 
mere flag of truce, in the nature of the case, 
is here impossible ; at least, it is only possible 
so long as neither party is sincere. No man 
who knows the splendor of scientific achieve- 
ment or cares for it, no man who feels the 
solidity of its method or works Avith it, can 
remain neutral with regard to Religion. He 
must either extend his method into it, or, if 
that is impossible, oppose it to the knife. On 
the other hand, no one who knows the con- 
tent of Christianit}^, or feels the universal 
need of a Religion, can stand idly by while 
the intellect of his age is slowly divorcing it- 
self from it. What is required, therefore, to 
draw Science and Religion together again — 
for they began the centuries hand in hand — is 
the disclosure of the naturalness of the super- 
natural. Then, and not till then, will men see 
how true it is, that to be loyal to all of Nature, 
they must be loyal to the part defined as Spir- 
itual. No science contributes to another with- 
out receiving a reciprocal benefit. And even 
as the contribution of Science to Religion is 
the vindication of the naturalness of the Super- 
natural, so the gift of Religion to Science is 
the demonstration of the supernaturalness of 
the Natural. Thus, as the Supernatural be- 
comes slowly Natural, will also the Natural 



PREFACE, 21 

become slowly Supernatural, until in the im- 
personal authority of Law men everywhere 
recognize the Authority of God. 

To those who already find themselves fully 
nourished on the older forms of truth, I do 
not commend these pages. They will find 
them superfluous. Kor is there any reason 
why they should mhigle with light which is 
already clear the distorting rays of a foreign 
expression. 

But to those who are feeling their way to a 
Christian life, haunted now by a sense of in- 
stability in the foundations of their faith, now 
brought to bay by specific doubt at one point 
raising, as all doubt does, the question for the 
whole, I would hold up a light which ,has 
often been kind to me. There is a sense of 
solidity about a Law of ]N"ature which belongs 
to nothing else in the world. Here, at last, 
amid all that is shifting, is one thing sure; 
one thing outside ourselves, unbiassed, unprej- 
udiced, uninfluenced by like or dislike, by 
doubt or fear; one thing that holds on its 
way to me eternally, incorruptible, and unde- 
filed. This, more than anything else, makes 
one eager to see the Reign of Law traced in the 
Spiritual Sphere. And should this seem to 
some to offer only a surer, but not a higher 
Faith ; should the better ordering of the Spir- 
itual World appear to satisfy the intellect at 
the sacrifice of reverence, simplicity, or love ; 
especially should it seem to substitute a Reign 
of Law and a Lawgiver for a Kingdom of 



22 PREFACE. 

Grace and a Personal God, I will say, with 
Browning, — 

"I spoke as I saw. 
I report, as a man may of God's work — alVs Love, yet 

alVs Law, 
Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. Each 

faculty tasked, 
To perceive Him, has gained an abyss where a dewdrop 

was asked." 



ANALYSIS OF INTRODUCTION, 



[For the sake of the general reader who may desire to 
pass at once to the practical apphcation, the following out- 
line of the Introduction — devoted rather to general principles 
^is here presented.] 

PAET I. 

Katukal Law in the Spieitual Sphere. 

1. The growth of the Idea of Law. 

2, Its gradual extension throughout every department of 

Knowledge. 

3, Except one. Eeligion hitherto the Great Exception. 

Why so ? 

4. Previous attempts to trace analogies between the 

Natural and Spiritual spheres. These have been 
limited to analogies between Phenomena ; and are 
useful mainly as illustrations. Analogies of Law 
would also have a Scientific value. 
6, Wherein that value would consist. (1) The Scienti- 
fic demand of the age would be met ; (2) Greater 
clearness would be introduced into Religion prac- 
tically ; (3) Theology, instead of resting on Au- 
thority, would rest equally on Nature. 

PART II. 

The Law of Continuity. 

A priori argument for Natural Law in the Spiritual 
World. 

1. The Law Discovered. 

2. '' Defined. 

3. '' Applied. 

4. The objection answered that the material of the Na- 

tural and Spiritual worlds being different they 
must be under different Laws. 

5. The existence of Laws in the Spiritual World other 

than the Natural Laws (1) improbable, (2) unnec- 
essary, (3) unknown. Qualification. 

6. The Spiritual not the projection upwards of the Na- 

tural ; but the Natural the projection downwards 
of the Spiritual. 



''This method turns aside from hypotheses not to be 
tested by any known logical canon familiar to science, 
wheither the hypothesis claims support from intuition, 
aspiration or general plausibility. And, again, this 
method turns aside from ideal standards which avow 
themselves to be lawless, which profess to transcend 
the field of law. We say, life and conduct shall stand 
for us wholly on a basis of law, and must rest en- 
tirely in that region of science (not physical, but 
moral and social science), where we are free to use our 
intelligence in the methods known to us as intelligible 
loyic, methods which the intellect can analyze. When 
you confront us with hypotheses, however sublime and 
however affecting, if they cannot be stated in terms 
of the rpst of our knowledge, if they are disparate to 
that world of sequence and sensation which to us is 
the ultimate base of all our real knowledge, then we 
shake our heads and turn aside." 

Frederick Harrison. 



INTRODUCTION. 



'* Ethical science is already forever completed, so far 
as her general outline and main principles are concerned, 
and has been, as it were, waiting for physical science to 
come up with her." — Paradoxical Philosophy. 



NATuitAL Law is a new word. It is the last 
and the most magnificent discovery of science. 
No more telling proof is open to the modern 
world of the greatness of the idea than the 
greatness of the attempts which have always 
been made to justify it. In the earlier cent- 
uries, before the birth of science, Phenomena 
were studied alone. The world then was a 
chaos, a collection of single, isolated, and inde- 
pendent facts. Deeper thinkers saw, indeed, 
that relations must subsist between these 
facts, but the Reign of Law was never more to 
the ancients than a far-off vision. Their phi- 
losophies, conspicuously those of the Stoics and 
Pythagoreans, heroically sought to marshal 
the discrete materials of the universe into 
thinkable form, but from these artificial and 
fantastic systems nothing remains to us now 



26 IN TB 01) UCTIOJSr. 

but an ancient testimony to the grandeur of 
that harmony which they failed to reach. 

With Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, the. 
first regular lines of the universe began to be 
discerned. When Nature yielded to Newton 
her great secret, Gravitation was felt to be 
not greater as a fact in itself than as a revela- 
tion that Law was fact. And thenceforth the 
searcli for individual Phenomena gave way 
before the larger study of their relations. The 
pursuit of Law became the passion of science. 

What that discovery of Law has done for 
Nature, it is impossible to estimate. As a 
mere spectacle the universe to-day discloses a 
beauty so transcendent that he who disciplines 
himself by scientific work finds it an over- 
whelming reward simply to behold it. In 
these Laws one stands face to face with truth, 
solid and unchangeable. Each single Law is 
an instrument of scientific research, simple in 
its adjustments, universal in its applications, 
infallible in its results. And despite the limit- 
ations of its sphere on every side Law is still 
the largest, richest, and surest source of 
human knowledge. 

It is not necessary for the present to more 
than lightly touch on definitions of Natural 
Law. The Duke of Argyll ^ indicates five 
senses in which the word is used, but we may 
content ourselves here by taking it in its most 
simple and obvious significance. The funda- 
mental conception of Law is an ascertained 

1*' Reign of Law," chap. ii. 



INTBODUCTION. 27 

working sequence of constant order among the 
Phenomena of IS'ature. This impression of 
Law as order it is important to receive in its 
simplicity, for the idea is often corrupted by- 
having attached to it erroneous views of cause 
and effect. In its true sense Natural Law 
predicates nothing of causes. The Laws of 
Nature are simply statements of the orderly 
condition of things in Nature, what is found 
in Nature by a sufficient number of competent 
observers. What these l^^ws are in them- 
selves is not agreed. That they have any 
absolute existence even is far from certain. 
They are relative to man in his many limita- 
tions, and represent for him the constant ex- 
pression of what he may always expect to find 
in the world around him. But that they have 
any causal connection with the things around 
him is not to be conceived. The Natural Laws 
originate nothing, sustain nothing ; they are 
merely responsible for uniformity in sustain- 
ing what has been originated and what is be- 
ing sustained. They are modes of operation, 
therefore, not operators ; processes, not powers. 
The Law of Gravitation, for instance, speaks 
to science only of process. It has no light 
to offer as to itself. Newton did not discover 
Gravity — that is not discovered yet. He dis- 
covered its Law, which is Gravitation, but 
that tells us nothing of its origin, of its 
nature, or of its cause. 

The Natural Laws then are great lines run- 
ning not only through the world, but, as we 
now know, through the universe, reducing it 



28 INTR GD UCTION. 

like parallels of latitude to intelligent order. 
In themselves, be it once more repeated, they 
may have no more absolute existence than par- 
allels of latitude. But they exist for uSo 
They are drawn for us to understand the part 
by some Hand that drev/ the v/hole ; so drawn, 
l^erhaps, that, understanding the part, we too 
in time may learn to understand the wdiole. 
Xow the inquiry w^e propose to ourselves re- 
solves into the simple question. Do these lines 
stop with what w^e call tlie Xatural sphere ? 
Is it not possible that they may lead further? 
Is it probable that the Hand which ruled 
them gave up the work where most of all they 
were required ? Did that Hand divide the 
world into two, a cosmos and a chaos, the 
higher being the chaos ? With Nature as the 
symbol of all of harmony and beauty that is 
known to man, must w^e still talk of the super- 
natural, not as a convenient word, but as a 
different order of world, an unintelligible 
world, where the Reign of Mystery supersedes 
the Reign of Law ? 

This question, let it be carefully observed, 
applies to Laws not to Phenomena. That the 
Phenomena of the Spiritual World are in 
analogy wdth the Phenomena of the Natural 
World requires no restatement. Since Plato 
enunciated his doctrine of the Cave or of the 
twice-divided line ; since Christ spake in para- 
bles ; since Plotinus wrote of the world as an 
imaged image ; since the mysticism of Sweden- 
borg ; since Bacon and Pascal ; since " Sartor 
Resartus," and, " In Memoriam," it has been 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

all but a commonplace with thinkers that " the 
invisible things of God from the creation of 
the world are clearly seen, being understood 
by the things that are made." Milton's ques- 
tion — 

'' What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things tlierein 
Each to other like more than oneartli is tliought ?" 

is now superfluous. " In our doctrine of 
representations and correspondences," says 
Swedenborg, "we shall treat of both these 
symbolical and typical resemblances, and of 
the astonishing things that occur, I will not 
say in the living body only, but throughout 
Nature, and which correspond so entirely to 
supreme and spiritual things, that one would 
swear that the physical world was purely sym- 
bolical of the spiritual world." ^ And Carlyle: 
"All visible things are emblems. What thou 
seest is not there on its own account ; strictly 
speaking, is not there at all. Matter exists 
only spiritually, and to represent some idea 
and body it forth." ^ 

But the analogies of Law are a totally dif- 
ferent thins: from the analoo^ies of Phenomena 
and have a very different value. To say 
generally, with Pascal, that " La nature est 
une image de la grace," is merely to be poeti- 
cal. The function of Hervey's "Meditations 
in a Flower Garden," or, Flavel's " Husbandry 
Spiritualized," is mainly homiletical. That 

, 1 " Animal Kingdom." 

2 " Sartor Kesartus," 1858 ed., p. 43. 



30 INTBOBUCTION, 

such works have an interest is not to be denied. 
The phice of parable in teaching, and especially 
after the sanction of the greatest of Teachers, 
must always be recognized. The very necessi- 
ties of language indeed demand this method of 
presenting truth. The temporal is the husk 
and framework of the eternal, and thoughts 
can be uttered only through things.^ 

But analogies between Phenomena bear 
the same relation to analogies of Law that 
Phenomena themselves bear to Law. The 
light of Law on truth, as we have seen, is an 
immense advance upon the light of Phenomena. 
The discovery of Law is simply the discovery 
of Science. And if the analogies of Natural 
Law can be extended to the Spiritual World, 
that whole region at once falls within the 
domain of science and secures a basis as well 

1 Even parable, however, has always been consideT'ed 
to have attached to it a measure of evidential as well as 
of illustrative value. Thus: " The parable or other 
analogy to spiritual truth appropriated from the world 
of nature or man, is not merely illustrative, but also in 
some sort proof. It is not merely that these analogies 
assist to make the truth intelligible ov, if. intelligible 
before, present it more vividly to the mind, which is all 
that some will allow them. Their power lies deeper 
than this, in the harmony unconsciously felt by all men, 
and wiiich all deeoer minds have delighted to trace, 
between the natural and spiritual worlds, so that analo- 
gies from the first are felt to be something more than 
illustrations happily but yet arbitrarily chosen. They 
are arguments, and may be alleged as witnesses ; the 
world of nature being throughout a witness for the w^orld 
of spirit, proceeding from the same hand, growing out 
of the same root, and being constituted for that very 
end." (Archbishop Trench: "Parables," pp. 12, 13.) 



INTRODUCTION. 81 

as an illumination in the constitution and 
course of Nature. All, therefore, that has 
been claimed for parable can be predicated d 
fortiori of this — with the addition that a proof 
on the basis of Law would want no criterion 
possessed by the most advanced science. 

That the validity of analogy generally has 
been seriously questioned one must frankly 
own. Doubtless there is much difficulty and 
even liability to gross error in attempting to 
establish analogy in specific cases. The value 
of the likeness appears differently to different 
minds, and in discussing an individual instance 
questions of relevancy will invariably crop up. 
Of course, in the language of John Stuart Mill, 
" when the analogy can be proved, the argu- 
ment founded upon it cannot be resisted." ^ 
But so great is the difficulty of proof that 
many are compelled to attach the most inferior 
weight to analogy as a method of reasoning. 
" Analogical evidence is generally more success- 
ful in silencing objections than in evincing 
truth. Though it rarely refutes it frequently 
repels refutation ; like those weapons which 
though they cannot kill the enemy, will ward 
his blows. . . It must be allowed that ana- 
logical evidence is at least but a feeble sup- 
port, and is hardly ever honored with the 
name of proof." ^ Other authorities on the 
other hand, such as Sir William Hamilton, 
admit analogy to a primary place in logic and 
regard it as the very basis of induction. 

iMm's " Logic," vol. ii. p. 96. 

2 Campbell's ''Rhetoric," vol. i. p. 114. 



32 INTB OB UCTION. 

But, fortunately, we are spared all discus- 
sion on this worn subject, for two cogent rea- 
sons. For one thing, we do not demand of 
Nature directly to prove Religion. That was 
never its function. Its function is to interpret. 
And this, after all, is possibly the most fruit- 
ful proof. The best proof of a thing is that 
we see it; if we do not see it, perhaps proof 
will not convince us of it. It is the want of 
the discerning faculty, the clairvoyant 'power 
of seeing the eternal in the temporal, rather 
than the failure of the I'eason, that begets the 
sceptic. But secondly, and more particularly, 
a significant circumstance has to be taken into 
account, which, though it will appear more 
clearly afterwards, may be stated here at once. 
The position we have been led to take up is not 
that the Spiritual Laws are analogous to the 
Natural Laws, but that thej/ are the same Laws, 
It is not a question of analogy but of Identity, 
The Natural Laws are not the shadows or 
images of the Spiritual in the same sense as 
autumn is emblematical of Decay, or the fall- 
ing leaf of Death. The Natural Laws, as the 
Law of Continuity might well warn us, do not 
stop with the visible and then give place to a 
new set of Laws bearing a strong similitude to 
them. The Laws of the invisible are the same 
Laws, projections of the natural not supernat- 
ural. Analogous Phenomena are not the fruit 
of parallel Laws, but of the same Law^s — Laws 
which at one end, as it were, may be dealing 
with. Matter, at the other end with Spirit. As 
there will be some inconvenience, however, in 



INTRODUCTION, 33 

dispensing with the word analogy, we shall 
continue occasionally to employ it. Those 
who apprehend the real relation will mentally 
substitute the larger term. 

Let us now look for a moment at the pres- 
ent state of the question. Can it be said that 
the Laws of the Spiritual World are in any 
sense considered even to have analogies with 
the Natural World ? Here and theie certainly 
one finds an attempt, and a successful attempt, 
to exhibit on a rational basis one or two of 
the great Moral Principles of the Spiritual 
World. But the Physical World has not been 
appealed to. Its magnificent system of Laws 
remains outside, audits contribution meanwhile 
is either silently ignored or purposely set aside. 
The Physical, it is said, is too remote from the 
Spiritual. The Moral World may afford a 
basis for religious truth, but even this is often 
the baldest concession ; while the appeal to 
the Physical universe is everywhere dismissed 
as, on the face of it, irrelevant' and unfruitful. 
From the scientific side, again, nothing has 
been done to court a closer fellowship. Science 
has taken theology at its own estimate. It is 
a thing apart. The Spiritual World is not 
only a different world, but a different kind of 
a world, a world arranged on a totally different 
principle, under a different governmental 
scheme. 

The Reign of Law has gradually crept into 
every department of ]N"ature, transforming 
knowledge everywhere into Science. The proc- 
ess goes on and Nature slowly appears to us as 

3 



34 INTB OD UCTIOK. 

one great unity, until the borders of the Spirit- 
ual World are reached. There the La\Y of 
Continuity ceases, and the harmony breaks 
down. And men who have learned their ele- 
mentary lessons truly from the alphabet of 
the lower Laws, going on to seek a liigher 
knowledge, are sudd^enly confronted with the 
Great Exception. 

Even those who have examined most care- 
fully the relations of the Natural and the 
Spiritual, seem to have committed themselves 
deliberatel}^ to a final separation in matters of 
Law. It is a surprise to find sucli a writer as 
Horace Bushnell, for instance, describing the 
Spiritual World as '' another system of nature 
incommunicably separate from ours," and 
further defining it thus : " God has, in fact, 
erected anotlier and higlier system, that of 
spiritual being and government for whicli 
nature exists ; a system not under the law of 
cause and effect, but ruled and marslialled 
under other kinds of laws." ^ Few men have 
shown more insight than Bushnell in illustrat- 
ing Spiritual truth from the Natural World ; 
but he has not only failed to perceive the 
analogy with regard to Law, but emphatically 
denies it. 

In the recent literature of this whole region 
there nowhere seems any advance upon the 
position of "Nature and the Supernatural." 
All are agreed in speaking of Nature and the 
Supernatural. Nature i?i the Supernatural, so 

1 " Nature and the Supernatural," p. 19. 



INTBOBUCTIOX, 85 

far as Laws are concerned, is still an unknown 
truth. 

" The Scientific Basis of Faith " is a sug- 
gestive title. The accomplished author an- 
nounces that the object of his investigation is 
to show that " the world of nature and mind, 
as made known by science, constitute a basis 
and a preparation for that highest moral and 
spiritual life of man, which is evoked by the 
self-revelation of God." ^ On the whole, Mr. 
Murphy seems to be more philosophical and 
more profound in his view of the relation of 
science and religion than any writer of modern 
times. His conception of religion is broad and 
lofty, his acquaintance with science adequate. 
He makes constant, admirable, and often 
original use of analogy ; and yet, in spite of 
the promise of this quotation, he has failed to 
find any analogy in that department of Lav/ 
where surely, of all others, it might most rea- 
sonably be looked for. Li the broad subject 
even of the analogies of what he defines 
as " evangelical religion " with Nature, Mr. 
Murphy discovers nothing. Nor can this be 
traced either to short-sight or over-sight. The 
subject occurs to him more than once, and he 
deliberately dismisses it — dismisses it not 
merely as unfruitful, but with a distinct denial 
of its relevancy. The memorable paragraph 
from Origen which forms the text of Butler's 
"Analogy," he calls "this shallow and false 



*' iThe Scientific Basis of Faith." By J. J. Murphy, 
466. 



36 INTBOJDUCTION. 

saying." ^ He says : " The designation of 
Butler's scheme of rehgious philosophy ought 
then to be the analogy of religion^ legal and 
evangelical^ to the constitution of nature. But 
does this give altogether, a true meaning? 
Does this double analogy really exist? If 
justice is natural law among beings having 
a moral nature, there is the closest analogy 
between the constitution of nature and merely 
legal religion. Legal religion is only the exten- 
sion of natural justice into a future life. . . 
But is this true of evangelical religion ? 
Have the doctrines of Divine grace any similar 
support in the analogies of nature? I trow 
not." ^ And w^ith reference to a specific ques- 
tion, speaking of immortality, he asserts that 
" the analogies of mere nature are opposed to 
the doctrine of immortality." ^ 

With regard to Butler's great work in this 
department, it is needless at this time of day 
to point out that his aims did not lie exactly 
in this direction. He did not seek to indicate 
analogies hetioeen religion and the constitution 
and course of Nature. His theme was, " The 
Analogy of Religion to the constitution and 
course of Nature." And although he pointed 
out direct analogies of Phenomena, such as 
those between the metamorphoses of insects 
and the doctrine of a future state ; and although 
he showed that " the natural and moral con- 
stitution and government of the world are so 
connected as to make up together but one 

1 Op. cit., p. 333. 2 j^id,^ p. 333. 3 j^^^.^ p. 331. 



INTRODUCTION. 37 

scheme," ^ his real intention was not so much 
to construct arguments as to repel objections. 
His emphasis accordingly was laid upon the 
difficulties of the two schemes rather than on 
their positive lines ; and so thoroughly has he 
made out his point, that, as is well known, the 
effect upon many has been, not to lead them to 
accept the Spiritual World on the ground of 
the Natural, but to make them despair of both. 
Butler lived at a time when defence was more 
necessary than construction, when the mate- 
rials for construction were scarce and insecure, 
and when, besides, some of the things to be 
defended were quite incapable of defence. 
Notwithstanding this, his influence over the 
whole field since has been unparalleled. 

After all, then, the Spiritual World, as it ap- 
pears at this moment, is outside Natural Law. 
Theology continues to be considered, as it has 
always been, a thing apart. It remains still 
a stupendous and splendid construction, but on 
lines altogether its own. Now is Theology to 
be blamed for this. Nature has been long in 
speaking; even yet its voice is low, sometimes 
inaudible. Science is the true defaulter, for 
Theology had to wait patiently for its develop- 
ment. As the highest of the sciences. The- 
ology in the order of evolution should be the 
last to fall into rank. It is reserved for it to 
perfect the final harmony. Still, if it continues 
longer to remain a thing apart, with increasing 
reason will be such protests as this of the 

1'' Analogy," chap. vii. 



38 INTRODUCTION. 

" Unseen Universe," when, in speaking of a 
view of miracles held by an older Theology, it 
declares : — " If he submits to be guided by 
such interpreters, each intelligent being will 
forever continue to be baffled in any attempt 
to explain these phenomena, because they are 
said to have no physical relation to anything 
that went before or that followed after ; in fine, 
they are made to form a universe within a uni- 
verse, a portion cut off by an insurmount- 
able barrier from the domain of scientific 
inquiry." ^ 

This is the secret of the present decadence of 
Religion in the world of Science. For Science 
can hear nothing of a Great Exception. Con- 
structions on unique lines, " portions cut off 
by an insurmountable barrier from the domain 
of scientific inquiry," it dare not recognize. 
Nature has taught it this lesson, and Nature 
is right. It is the province of Science to vindi- 
cate Nature here at any hazard. But in blam- 
ing Theology for its intolerance, it has been 
betrayed into an intolerance less excusable. It 
has .pronounced upon it too soon. What if 
Religion be yet brought within the sphere of 
Law? Law is the revelation of time. One by 
one slowly through the centuries the Sciences 
have crystallized into geometrical form, each 
form not only perfect in itself, but perfect in 
its relation to all other forms. Many forms 
had to be perfected before the form of the 
Spiritual, The Inorganic has to be worked out 

1 *' Unseen Universe,'^ 6tli ed., pp, 89, 90. 



INTROBUCriON. 39 

before the Organic, the Natural before the 
Spiritual. Theology at present has merely an 
ancient and provisional philosophic form. By 
and bv it will be seen whether it be not sus- 
ceptible of another. For Theology must pass 
through the necessary stages of progress, like 
any other science. The method of science- 
making is now fully established. In almost all 
cases the natural history and development are 
the same. Take, for example, the case of Geol- 
ogy. A century ago there was none. Science 
went out to look for it, and brought back 
a Geology which, if Xature were a harmony, 
had falsehood written almost on its face. It 
w^as the Geology of Catastrophism, a Geology 
so out of line with Nature as revealed by the 
other sciences, that on d j)Hori grounds a 
thoughtful mind might have been justified in 
dismissing it as a final form of any science. 
And its fallacy was soon and thoroughly ex- 
posed. The advent of modified uniformitarian 
principles all but banished the word catastrophe 
from science, and marked the birth of Geol- 
ogy as w^e know it now. Geology, that is to say, 
had fallen at last into the great scheme of Law. 
Religious doctrines, many of them at least, 
have been up to this time all but as catastro- 
phic as the old Geology. They are not on the 
lines of Nature as we have learned to decipher 
her. If any one feel, as Science complains that 
it feels, that the lie of things in the Spiritual 
World as arranged by Theology is not in har- 
mony with the world around, is not, in short, 
scientific, he is entitled to raise the question 



40 INTBODUCTION. 

whether this be really the final form of those de* 
partments of Theology to which his complaint 
refers. He is justified, moreover, in demanding 
a new investigation with all modern methods 
and resources ; and Science is bound by its 
principles not less than by the lessons of its own 
past, to suspend judgment till the last attempt 
is made. The success of such an attempt Mali 
be looked forward to with hopefulness or fear- 
fulness just in proportion to one's confidence 
in Nature — in proportion to one's belief in the 
divinity of man and in the divinity of thingSo 
If there is any truth in the unity of Nature, if 
that suxoreme principle of Continuity which is 
growing in splendor with every discovery of 
science, the conclusion is foregone. If there 
is any foundation for Theology, if the phe- 
nomena of the Spiritual World are real, in the 
nature of things they ought to come into the 
sphere of Law. Such is at once the demand 
of Science upon Religion and the prophecy 
that it can and shall be fulfilled. 

The Botany of Linnseus, a purely artificial 
system, was a splendid contribution to human 
knowledge, and did more in its day to enlarge 
the view of the vegetable kingdom than all 
that had gone before. But all artificial sys- 
tems must pass away. None knew better 
than the great Swedish naturalist himself that 
his system, being artificial, was but provisional. 
Nature must be read in its own light. And 
as the botanical field became more luminous, 
the system of Jussieu and De Candolle slovvdy 
emerged as a native growth, unfolded itself as 



INTBOBUCTION. 41 

naturally as the petals of one of its own 
flowers, and forcing itself upon men's intelli- 
gence as the very voice of Nature, banished 
the Linnsean system forever. It were unjust 
to say that the present Theology is as artifi- 
cial as the system of Linn^us ; in many partic- 
ulars it wants but a fresh expression to make 
it in the most modern sense scientific. But if 
it has a basis in the constitution and course of 
Nature, that basis has never been adequately 
shown. It has depended on Authority rather 
than on Law ; and a new basis must be sought 
and found if it is to be presented to those with 
whom Law alone is Authoritj^ 

It is not of course to be inferred that the 
scientific method will ever abolish the radical 
distinctions of the Spiritual World. True 
science proposes to itself no such general lev- 
elling in any department. Within the unity 
of the whole there must always be room for 
the characteristic differences of the parts, and 
those tendencies of thought at the present time 
wdiich ignore such distinctions, in their zeal 
for simplicity really create confusion. As has 
been well said by Mr. Hutton : " Any attempt 
to merge tiie distinctive characteristic of a 
higher science in a lower — of chemical changes 
in mechanical— ^of physiological in chemical — 
above all, of mental changes in physiological 
— is a neglect of tlie radical assumption of all 
science, because it is an attempt to deduce 
representations, — or rather misrepresentations 
— of one kind of phenomenon from a concep- 
tion of another kind which does not contain it. 



42 INTB OB UCTION. 

and must have it implicitly and illicitly smug- 
gled in before it can be extracted out of it. 
Hence, instead of increasing our means of rep- 
resenting the universe to ourselves without 
the detailed examination of particulars, such 
a procedure leads to misconstructions of fact 
on the basis of an imported theory, and gener- 
ally ends in forcibly perverting the least-known 
science to the type of the better known." ^ 

What is wanted is simply a unity of concep- 
tion, but not such a unity of conception as 
should be founded on an absolute identity of 
phenomena. This latter might indeed be a 
unity, but it would be a very tame one. The 
13erfection of unity is attained where there is 
infinite variety of phenomena, infinite com- 
plexity of relation, but great simplicity of Law. 
Science will be complete Avhen all known 
phenomena can be arranged in one vast circle 
in which a few well-known Laws shall form the 
radii — these radii at once separating and unit- 
ing, separating into particular groups, yet unit- 
ing all to a common centre. To show that the 
radii for some of the most characteristic phe- 
nomena of the Spiritual World are already 
drawn within that circle by science is the main 
object of the papers which follow. There will be 
found an attempt to re-state a few of the more 
elementary facts of the Spiritual Life in terms 
of Biology. Any argument for Natural Law in 
the Spiritual World may be best tested in the 
a posteriori form. And although the succeed- 

1 " Essays," vol. 1. p. 40. 



INTB on UCIION. 43 

ing pages are not designed in the first instance 
to prove a principle, they may yet "be entered 
here as evidence. The practical test is a se- 
vere one, but on that account all the more 
satisfactory. 

And what will be gained if the point be 
made out? Not a few things. For one, as 
partly indicated already, the scientific demand 
of the age will be satisfied. That demand is 
that all that concerns life and conduct shall be 
placed on a scientific basis. The only great 
attempt to meet that at present is Positivism. 

But Avhat again is a scientific basis ? What 
exactly is this demand of the age? "By 
Science I understand," says liuxle}^, " all 
knowledge which rests upon evidence and rea- 
soning of a like character to that which claims 
our assent to ordinary scientific propositions ; 
and if any one is able to make good the asser- 
tion that his theology rests upon valid evi- 
dence and sound reasoning, then it appears to 
me that such theology must talce its place as 
a part of science." That the assertion lias 
been already made good is claimed by many 
who deserve to be heard on questions of scien- 
tifi^c evidence. But if more is wanted by some 
minds, more not perhaps of a higher kind but 
of a different kind, at least the attempt can 
be made to gratify them. Mr. Frederic ILirri- 
son,i in name of the Positive method of 
thought, " turns aside from ideal standards 

i"A Modern Symposium." — Nineteenth Century^ 
vol. i., p. 625. 



44 INTR OB UCTION. 

which avov/ themselves to be Imdess [the 
italics are Mr. Harrison's], which profess to 
transcend the field of law. We say, life and 
conduct shall stand for us wholly on a basis of 
law, and must rest entirely in that region of 
science (not physical, but moral and social 
science) where we are free to use our intelli- 
gence, in the methods known to us as intelligi- 
ble logic, methods which the intellect can an- 
alyze. When you confront us with hypoth- 
eses, however sublime and however affecting, 
if they cannot be stated in terms of the rest 
of our knowledge, if they are disparate to 
that world of sequence and sensation which to 
us is the ultimate base of all our real knowl- 
edge, then we shake our heads and turn 
aside." This is a most reasonable demand, 
and we humbly accept the challenge. We 
think religious truth, or at all events certain 
of the largest facts of the Spiritual Life, can 
be stated " in terms of the rest of our knowl- 
edge." 

We do not say, as already hinted, that the 
proposal includes an attempt to prove the 
existence of the Spiritual World. Does that 
need proof? And if so, what sort of evidence 
would be considered in court ? The facts of 
the Spiritual World are as real to thousands 
as the facts of the Natural World — and more 
real to hundreds. But were one asked to 
prove that the Spiritual World can be discerned 
by the appropriate faculties, one would do it 
precisely as one would attempt to prove tlie 
i^atural World to be an object of recognition 



INTRODUCTION, 45 

to the senses — and with as much or as little 
success. In either instance probably the fact 
would be found incapable of demonstration, 
but not more in the one case than in the other. 
Were one asked to prove the existence of 
Spiritual Life, one would also do it exactly as 
one would seek to prove Natural Life. And 
this perhaps might be attempted with more 
hope. But this is not on the immediate pro- 
gramme. Science deals with known facts ; and 
accepting certain known facts in the Spiritual 
World we proceed to arrange them, to dis- 
cover their Laws, to inquire if they can be 
stated " in terms of the rest of our knowl- 
edge." 

At the same time, although attempting no 
philosophical proof of the existence of a Spirit- 
ual Life and a Spiritual World, we are not 
without hope that the general line of thought 
here may be useful to some who are honestly 
inquiring in these directions. The stumbling- 
block to most minds is perhaps less the mere 
existence of the unseen than the want of defi- 
nition, the apparently hopeless vagueness, and 
not least, the delight in this vagueness as mere 
vagueness by some who look upon this as the 
mark of quality in Spiritual things. It will 
be at least something to tell earnest seekers 
that the Spiritual World is not a castle in the 
air, of an architecture unknown to earth or 
heaven, but a fair ordered realm furnished with 
many familiar things and ruled by well re- 
membered Laws. 

It is scarcely necessary to emphasize under 



46 INTB 01) UCTIOX. 

a second head the gain in clearness. The 
Spiritual world as it stands is full of perplex- 
ity. One can escape doubt only by escaphig 
thought. With regard to many important 
articles of religion, perhaps the best and the 
worst course at present open to a doubter is 
dimply credulity. Who is to answer for this 
state of things ? It comes as a iiecessary tax 
for improvement on the age in which we live. 
The old ground of faith, Authority, is given 
^ip; the new. Science, has not yet taken its 
place. Men did not require to see truth before ; 
they only needed to believe it. Trutli, there- 
fore, had not been put by Theology in a seeing 
form — which, however, was its original form. 
But now they ask to see it. And when it is 
shown them they start back in despair. We 
shall not say what they see. But we shall 
say what they might see. If the Natural 
Laws were run through the Spiritual World, 
they might see the great lines of religious 
truth as clearly and simply as the broad lines 
of science. As they gazed into that Xatural- 
Spiritual Yf orld they would say to themselves, 
" We have seen something like this before. 
This order is known to us. It is not arbitrary. 
This Law here is that old Law there, and this 
Phenomenon here, what can it be but that 
which stood in precisely the same relation to 
that Law yonder?" And so gradually from 
the new form everything assumes new mean- 
ing. So the Spiritual World becomes slowly 
Natural ; and, what is of all but equal moment, 
the Natural World becomes slowly Spiritual. 



INTBOBUCTION. 47 

Nature is not a mere image or emblem of the 
Spiritual. It is a working model of the Spirit- 
ual. In the Spiritual World the same wheels 
revolve — but vvithout the iron. The same 
figures flit across the stage, the same processes 
of growth go on, the same functions are dis- 
charged, the same biological laws prevail — 
only with a different quahty of Bio<^, Plato's 
prisoner, if not out of the Cave, has at least his 
face to the light. 

" The earth is cram'd with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God." 

How much of the Spiritual World is covered 
by Natural Law we do not propose at present 
to inquire. It is certain, at least, that the 
whole is not covered. And nothing more lends 
confidence to the method than this. For one 
thing, room is still left for mystery. Had no 
place remained for mystery it had proved itself 
both unscientific and irreligious. A Science 
without mystery is unknown ; a Religion with- 
out mystery is absurd. This no attempt to re- 
duce Religion to a question of mathematics, or 
demonstrate God in biological formulae. The 
elimination of mystery from the universe is 
the elimination of Religion. However far the 
scientific method may penetrate the Spiritual 
World, there will always remain a region to be 
explored by a scientific faith. " I shall never 
rise to the point of view which wishes to 
* raise' faith to knowledge. To me, the way 
of truth is to come through the knowledge of 



48 INTRODUCTION. 

my ignorance to the submissiveness of faith, 
and then, makhig that my starting place, to 
raise my knowledge into faith." ^ 

Lest this proclamation of mystery should 
seem alarming, let ns add that this mystery 
also is scientific. The one subject on which all 
scientific men are agreed, the one theme on 
which all alike become eloquent, the one strain 
of pathos in all their Avriting and speaking and 
thinking, concerns that final unce]lainty, that 
utter blackness of darkness bounding their 
work on every side. If the light of Nature is 
to illuminate for us the Spiritual Sphere there 
, may well be a black Unknown, corresponding, 
at least at some points, to this zone of dark- 
ness round the Natural World. 

But the final gahi would appear in the 
department of Theology. The establishment 
of the Spiritual Laws on " the solid ground of 
Nature," to which the mind trusts "which 
builds for aye," would ofi'er a new basis for 
certainty in Eeligion. It has been indicated 
that the authority of Authority is waning. 
This is a plain fact. And it was inevitable. 
Authority — man's Authority that is — is for 
children. And there necessarily comes a time 
when they add to the question. What shall I 
do? or. What shall I believe? the adult's 
interrogation — Why? Now this question is 
sacred, and must be answered. 

" How truly its central position is impreg- 

iBeck: "Bib. Psychol.," Clark's Tr., Pref., 2d Ed. 
p. xiii. 



INTB OD UCTIOJSr. 49 

nable,'' Herbert Spencer has well discerned, 
^'religion has never adequately realized. In 
the devoutest faith, as we habitually see it, 
there lies hidden an innermost core of scepti- 
cism ; and it is this scepticism which causes 
that dread of inquiry displayed by religion 
when face to face with science."^ True in- 
deed ; Religion has never realized how im- 
pregnable are many of its positions. It has 
not yet been placed on that basis which would 
make them impregnable. And in a transition 
period like the present, holdhig Authority 
with one hand, the other feeling all around in 
the darkness for some strong new support, 
Theology is surely to be pitied. Whence this 
dread when brought face to face with Science? 
It cannot be dread of scientific fact. No single 
fact in Science has ever discredited a fact in 
Religion. The • theologian knows that, and 
admits that he has no fear of facts. What 
then has Science done to make Theology 
tremble ? It is its method. It is its system. 
It is its Reign of Law. It is its harmony and 
continuity. The attack is not specific. No 
one point is assailed. It is the whole system 
which when compared with the other and 
Aveighed in its balance is found wanting. An 
eye which has looked at the first cannot look 
up(m this. To do that, and rest in the con- 
templation, it has first to uncentury itself. 

Herbert Spencer points out further, with 
how much truth need not now be discussed, 

1 "First Principles," p. 161. 



50 INTRODUCTION. 

that the purification of Religion has always 
come from Science. It is very apparent at 
all events that an immense debt must soon be 
contracted. The shifting of the furnishings 
will be a work of time. But it must be ac- 
complished. iVnd not the least result of the 
process will be the effect upon Science itself. 
No department of knowledge ever contributes 
to another without receiving its own again 
with usury — witness the reciprocal favors of 
Biology and Sociology. From the time that 
Comte defined the analogy between the phe- 
nomena exhibited by aggregations of associated 
men and those of animal colonies, the Science 
of- Life and tlie Science of Society have been so 
contributing to one another that their progress 
since has been all but hand-in-hand. A con- 
ception borrowed by the one has been observed 
in time finding its way back, and always in 
an enlarged form, to further illuminate and 
enrich the field it left. So must it be with 
Science and Religion. If the purification of 
Religion comes from Science, the purification 
of Science, in a deeper sense, shall come from 
Religion. The true ministry of ^NTature must 
at last be honored, and Science take its place 
as the great expositor. To Men of Science, 
not less than to Theologians, 

" Science then 
Shall be a precious visitant ; and then, 
And only then, be worthy of her name ; 
For then her heart shall kindle, her dull eye, 
Dull and inanimate, no more shall hang 
Chained to its object in bi-ute slavery ; 
But taught with patient interest to watch 



INTRODUCTION. 51 

The process of things, and serve the cause 

Of order and distinctness, not for this 

Shall it forget that its most noble use, 

Its most illustrious province, must be found 

In furnishing clear guidance, a support, 

Kot treacherous, to the mind's excursive i^ower.^'' ^ 

But the gift of Science to Theology shall be 
not less rich. With the inspiration of Nature 
to illuminate what the inspiration of Revela- 
tion has left obscure, heresy in certain whole 
departments shall become impossible. With 
the demonstration of the naturalness of the 
supernatural, scepticism even may come to 
be regarded as unscientific. And those who 
have wrestled long for a few bare truths to 
ennoble life and rest their souls in thinking of 
the future will not be left in doubt. 

It is impossible to believe that the amazing 
succession of revelations in the domain of 
Nature during the last few centuries, at which 
the world has all but grown tired wondering, 
are to yield nothing for the higher life. If the 
development of doctrine is to have any mean- 
ing for the future. Theology must draw upon 
the further revelation of the seen for the fur- 
ther revelation of the unseen. It need, and 
can, add nothing to fact; but as the vision of 
Newton rested on a clearer and richer world 
than that of Plato, so, though seeing the same 
things in the Spiritual World as our fathers, 
we may see them clearer and richer. With 
the work of the centuries upon it, the mental 

^ Wordsworth's Excursion, Book iv. 



52 I^sTllODUCTlON, 

eye is a finer instrument, and demands a more 
ordered world. Had the revelation of Law 
been given sooner, it had been unmtelligible. 
Revelation never volunteers anything that man 
could discover for himself — on the principle, 
probably, that it is only when he is capable of 
discovering it that he is capable of appreciating 
it. Besides, children do not need Laws, ex- 
cept Laws in the sense of commandments. 
They repose with simplicity on authority, and 
ask no questions. Bat there ( omes a time, as 
the world reaches its manhood, when they will 
ask questions, and stake, moreover, everything 
on the answers. That time is now. Hence 
w^e must exhibit our doctrines, not lying 
athwart the lines of the world's thinking, in a 
phice reserved, and therefore shunned, for the 
Great Exception ; but in their kinship to all 
truth and in their Law-relation to the wdiole 
of Nature. This is, indeed, simply following 
out the system of teaching begun by Christ 
Himself. And what is the search for spir- 
itual truth in the Laws of Nature but an at- 
tempt to utter the parables which have been 
]iid so long in the world around without a 
preacher, and to tell men once more that the 
Kino^dom of Heaven is like unto this and to 
that? 



INTROBUGTION. 53 



PART II., 

The Law of Continuity having been referred 
to already as a prominent factor in tiiis in- 
quiry, it may not be out of place to sustain 
plea for Natural Law in the Spiritual Sphere 
by a brief statement and application of this 
great principle. The Law of Continuity fur- 
nishes an a priori argument for the position 
we are attempting to establish of the most 
convincing kind — of such a kind, indeed, as to 
seem to our mind final. Briefly indicated, the 
ground taken up is this, that if Nature be 
a harmony, Man in all his relations — physical, 
mental, moral, and spiritual — falls to Idc in- 
cluded Avithin its circle. It is altogether un- 
likely that man spiritual should be violently 
separated in all the conditions of growth, de- 
velopment, and life, from man physical. It 
is indeed difficult to conceive that one set of 
principles should guide the natural life, and 
these at a certain period — the very point 
where they are needed— suddenly give place 
to another set of principles altogether new 
and unrelated. Nature has never taught us 
to expect such a catastrophe. She has no- 
where prepared us for it. And Man cannot 
in the nature of things, in the nature of 



54 lyTBODUCriON. 

thought, in the nature of language, be sepa- 
rated into two such incoherent halves. 

The spiritual man, it is true, is to be studied 
in a different department of science from the 
natural man. But the harmony established 
by science is not a harmony within specific 
departments. It is the universe that is the 
harmony, the universe of which these are but 
parts. And the harmonies of the parts de- 
pend for all their weight and interest on the 
harmony of the whole. While, therefore, 
there are many harmonies, there is but one 
harmony. The breaking up of the phenomena 
of the universe into carefully guarded groups, 
and the allocation of certain prominent Laws 
to each, it must never be forgotten, and how^- 
ever much Nature lends herself to it, are 
artificial. We find an evolution in Botany, 
another in Geology, and another in Astronomy, 
and the effect is to lead one insensibility to 
look upon these as three distinct evolutions. 
But these sciences, of course, are mere depart- 
ments created by ourselves to facilitate 
knowledge — reductions of Nature to the scale 
of our own intelligence. And we must bew^are 
of breaking up Nature except for this purpose. 
Science has so dissected everything, that it 
becomes a mental difficulty to put the puzzle 
together again ; and we must keep ourselves 
in practice by constantly thinking of Nature 
as a whole, if science is not to be spoiled by its 
own refinements. Evolution being found in 
so many different sciences, the likelihood is 
that it is a universal principle. And there is 



INTRODUCTION. 55 

no presumption whatever against this Law 
and many others being excluded from the do- 
main of the spiritual life. On the other hand, 
there are very convincing reasons why the 
Natural Laws should be continuous through 
the Spiritual Sphere — not changed in any way 
to meet the new circumstances, but continuous 
as they stand. 

But to the exposition. One of the most 
striking generalizations of recent science is 
that even Laws have their Law. Phenomena 
first, in the progress of knowledge, were grouped 
together, and Nature shortly presented the. 
spectacle of a cosmos, the lines of beauty being 
the great Natural Laws, So long, however, as 
these Laws were merely great lines running 
through Nature, so long as they remained 
isolated from one another, the system of Nature 
Avas still incomplete. The principle which 
sought Law among phenomena had to go further 
and seek a Law among the Laws. Laws them- 
selves accordingly came to be treated as they 
treated phenomena, and found themselves 
finally grouped in a still narrowe rcircle. That 
inmost circle is governed by one great Law, the 
Law of Continuity. It is the Law for Laws. 

It is perhaps significant that few exact defini- 
tions of Continuity are to be found. Even in 
Sir W. R. Grove's famous paper,^ the fountain- 
head of the modern form of this far from 
modern truth, there is no attempt at definition. 



1 " The Correlation of Physical Forces," (3th Ed. p. 181 
et seq. 



56 INTE on UCTION, 

In point of fact, its sweep is so magnificent, it 
appeals so much more to the imagination than 
to tlie reason, that men have preferred to 
exhibit rather than to define it. Its true great- 
ness consists in the final impression it leaves 
on the mind with regard to the uniformity of 
Nature. For it was reserved for the Law of 
Continuity to put the finishing touch to the 
harmony of the universe. 

Probably the most satisfactory way to secure 
for oneself a just appreciation of the Principle 
of Continuity is to try to conceive the universe 
without it. The opposite of a continuous uni- 
verse would be a discontinuous universe, an 
incoherent and irrelevant universe — as irrel- 
evant in. all its ways of doing things as an 
irrelevant person. In effect, to withdraw Con- 
tinuity from the universe would be the same 
as to withdraw reason from an individual. 
The universe would run deranged ; the world 
would be a mad world. 

There used to be a children's book which bore 
the fascinating title of ''The Chance \Yorld."" 
It described a world in which everything hap- 
pened by chance. The sun might I'ise or it 
might not ; or it might appear at any hour, or 
the moon might come up instead. When 
children were born they might have one head 
or a dozen heads, and those heads miglit not be 
on their shoulders — there might be no shoulders 
— but arranged about the limbs. If one jumped 
up in the air it was impossible to predict 
whether he would ever come down again. That 
he came down yesterday was no guai^antee that 



INTRODUCTION, 57 

he would do it next time. For every day 
antecedent and consequent varied, and gravita- 
tion and everything else changed from hour to 
hour. To-day a child's body might be so light 
that it was impossible for it to descend from 
its chair to the floor ; but to-morrow, in attempt- 
ing the experiment again, the impetus might 
drive it through a three-story house and dash 
it to pieces somewhere near the centre of the 
earth. In this chance world cause and effect 
were abolished. Law was annihilated. And 
the result to the inhabitants of such a world 
could only be that reason would be impossible. 
It would be a lunatic world with a population 
of lunatics. 

Now this is no more than a real picture of 
what the world would be without Law, or the 
universe without Continuity. And hence we 
come in sight of the necessity of some principle 
or Law according to which Laws shall be, and 
be " continuous " throughout the system. Man 
as a rational and moral being demands a pledge 
that if he depends on Nature for any given 
result on the ground that Nature has pre- 
viously led him to except such a result, his 
intellect shall not be insulted, nor his confi- 
dence in her abused. If he is to trust Nature, 
in short, it must be guaranteed to him that in 
doing so he will "never be put to confusion." 
The authors of the Unseen Universe conckide 
their examination of this principle by saying 
that "assuming the existence of a supreme 
Governor of the universe, the Principle of 
Continuity may be said to be the definite ex- 



58 INTBOBUCTION, 

pression in words of our trust that He will not 
put us to permanent intellectual confusion, and 
we can easily conceive similar expressions of 
trust with reference to the other faculties of 
man." ^ Or, as it has been well put elsewhere. 
Continuity is the expression of "the Divine 
Veracity in Nature." ^ The most striking 
examples of the continuousness of Law are 
perhaps those furnished by Astronomy, espe- 
cially in connection with the more recent appli- 
cations of spectrum analysis. But even in the 
case of the simpler Laws the demonstration is 
complete. There is no reason apart from 
Continuity to expect that gravitation for 
instance should prevail outside our world. 
But wherever matter has been detected 
throughout the entire universe, whether in the 
form of star or planet, comet or meteorite, it is 
found to obey that Law. "If there were no 
other indication of unity than this, it would be 
almost enough. For the unity which is implied 
in the mechanism of the heavens is indeed 
a unity which is all-embracing and complete. 
The structure of our own bodies, Avith all that 
depends upon it, is a structure governed by, 
and therefore adapted to, the same force of 
gravitation which has determined the form and 
the movements of myriads of worlds. Every 
part of the human organism is fitted to condi- 
tions which would all be destroyed in a moment 



1 "Unseen Universe," 6th Ed. p. 88. 

2 "Old Faiths in Xew Light," by Xewman Smith. 
Unwin's EngUsh edition, p. 252. 



INTRODUCTION. 59 

if the forces of gravitation were to change or 
fail."i 

But it is unnecessary to multiply illustra- 
tions. Having defined the jorinciple we may 
proceed at once to apply it. And the argu- 
ment may be summed up in a sentence. As 
the Natural Laws are continuous through the 
universe of matter and of space, so will they be 
continuous through the universe of spirit. 

If this be denied, what then? Those who 
deny it must furnish the disproof. The argu- 
ment is founded on a principle which is now 
acknowledged to be universal ; and the onus of 
disproof must lie Avith those who may be bold 
enough to take up the position that a region 
exists whereat last the Principle of Continuity 
fails. To do this one would first have to over- 
turn Nature, then science, and last, the human 
mind. 

It may seem an obvious objection that many 
of the Natural Laws have no connection what- 
ever with the Spiritual World, and as a matter 
of fact are not continued through it. Gravita- 
tion for instance — what direct application has 
that in the Spiritual World? The reply is 
threefold. First, there is no proof that it does 
not hold there. If tlie spirit be in any sense 
material it certainly must hold. In the second 
place, gravitation may liold for the Spiritual 
Sphere although it cannot be directly proved. 
The spirit may be armed with powers which 
enable it to rise superior to gravity. During 

1 The Duke of Argyll : Contemporary Beview, Sept., 
1880, p. 358. 



60 INTB OD UCTION. 

the action of these powers gravity need be no 
more suspended than in the case of a plant 
which rises in the air during the process of 
growtli. It does tliis in virtue of a higher Law 
and in apparent defiance of the lower. Thirdly, 
if the spiritual be not material it still caunot 
be said that gravitation ceases at that point to 
be continuous. It is not gravitation that 
ceases — it is matter. 

This point, however, will require develop- 
ment for another reason. In the case of the 
plant just referred to, there is a principle of 
growth or vitality at work superseding the at- 
traction of gravity. Why is there no trace of 
that Law in the Inorganic world? Is not this 
another instance of the discontinuousness of 
Law ? If the Law of vitality has so little con- 
nection with the Inorganic kingdom — less even 
than gravitation with the Spiritual, what be- 
comes of Continuity ? Is it not evident that 
each kingdom of Xature has its own set of Laws 
which continue possibly untouched for the 
specific kingdom but never extend beyond it ? 

It is quite true that when we pass from the 
Inorganic to the Organic, we come upon a new 
set of Laws. But the reason why the lower 
set do not seem to act in the higher sphere 
is not that they are annihilated, but they are 
overruled. And the reason why the higher 
Laws are not found operating in the lower is 
not because they are not contimions down- 
wards, but because there is nothing for them 
there to act upon. It is not Law that fails, 
but opportunity. The biological Laws are con- 



INTRODUCTION. 61 

tinuous for life. - Wherever there is life, that 
is to say, they will be found acting, jusfc as 
gravitation acts wherever there is matter. 

We have purposely, in the last paragraph, 
indulged in a fallacy. We have said that the 
biological Laws would certainly be continuous 
in the lower or mineral sphere were there any- 
thing there for them to act upon. Now Laws 
do not act upon anything. It has been stated 
already, although apparently it cannot be too 
abundantly emphasized, that Laws are only 
modes of operation, not themselves operators. 
The accurate statement, therefore, would be 
that the biological Laws would be continuous 
in the lower sphere were there anything there 
for them, not to act upon, but to keep in order. 
If there is no acting going on, if there is noth- 
ing being kept in order, the responsibility 
does not lie with Continuity. The Law will 
always be at its post, not only when its services 
are required, but wherever they are possible. 

Attention is drawn to this, for it is a correc- 
tion one will find oneself compelled often to 
make in his thinking. It is so difficult to keep 
out of mind the idea of substance in connection 
with the Natural Laws, the idea that they are 
the movers, the essences, the energies, that one 
is constantly on the verge of falling into false 
conclusions. Thus a hasty glance at tlie pres- 
ent argument on the part of any one ill-fur- 
nished enough to confound Law with substance 
or with cause would probably lead to its im- 
mediate rejection. 

For, to continue the same line of illustration, 



62 INTRODUCTION, 

it might next be urged that such a Law as 
Biogensis, which, as we hope to show after- 
wards, is the fundamental Law of hfe for both 
the natural and spiritual worlds, can have no 
application whatsoever in the latter sphere. 
The life with which it deals in the ]N"atural 
World does not enter at all into the Spiritual 
World, and therefore, it might be argued, the 
Law of Biogenesis cannot be capable of ex^ 
tension into it. The Law of Continuity seems 
to be snapped at the point where the natural 
passes into the spiritual. The vital principle 
of the body is a different thing from the vitrJ 
principle of the spiritual life. Biogenesis 
deals with Bolg with the natural life, with 
cells and germs, and as there are no exactly 
similar cells and germs in the Spiritual World, 
the Law cannot therefore apply. All of which 
is as true as if one were to say that the fifth 
proposition of the First Book of Euclid applies 
when the figures are drawn with chalk upon a 
blackboard, but fails with regard to structures 
of wood or stone. 

The proposition is continuous for the whole 
world, and, doubtless, likewise for the sun and 
moon and stars. The same universality may 
be predicated likewise for the Law of life. 
Wherever there is life we may expect to find it 
arranged, ordered, governed according to the 
same Law. At the beginning of the natural 
life we find the Law that natural life can only 
come from pre-existing natural life ; and at 
the beginning of the spiritual life we find that 
the spiritual life can only come from pre- 



INTRODUCTION. 63 

existing spiritual life. But there are not two 
Laws ; there is one — Biogenesis. At one end 
the Law is dealing with matter, at the other 
with spirit. The qualitative terms natural and 
spiritual make no difference. Biogenesis is the 
Law for all life and for all kinds of life, and the 
particular substance with which it is associated 
is as different to Biogenesis as it is to Gravita- 
tion., Gravitation will act whether the sub- 
stance be suns and stars, or grains of sand, or 
raindrops. Biogenesis, in like manner, will 
wherever act there is life. 

The conclusion finally is, that from the. 
nature of Law in general, and from the scope 
of the Principle of Continuity in particular, 
the Laws of the natural life must be those of 
the spiritual life. This does not exclude, 
observe, the possibility of there being new 
Laws in addition within the Spiritual Sphere ; 
nor does it even include the supposition that- 
the old Laws will be the conspicuousLaws of 
the Spiritual World, both which points will be 
dealt with presently. It simply asserts that 
whatever else may be found, these must be 
found there ; that they must be there though 
they may not be seen there ; and that they 
must project beyond there if there be anything 
beyond there. If the Law of Continuity is 
true, the only way to escape the conclusion 
that the Laws of the natural life are the Laws, 
or at least are Laws, of the spiritual life, is to 
say that there is no spiritual life. It is really 
easier to give up the phenomena than to give 
ap the Law. 



64 INTRODUCTION. 

Two questions now remain for further con^ 
sideration — one bearing on the possibility of 
new Law in the spiritual ; the other, on the 
assumed invisibility or inconspicuousness of 
the old Laws on account of their subordination 
to the new. 

Let us begin by conceding that there may be 
new Laws. The argument might then be 
advanced that since, in Nature generally, Ave 
come upon new Laws as we pass from lower 
to higher kingdoms, the old still remaining in 
force, the newer Laws which one would expect 
to meet in the Spiritual World would so tran- 
scend and overwhelm the older as to make the 
•analogy or identity, even if traced, of no practi- 
cal use. The new Laws would represent opera- 
tions and energies so different, and so much 
more elevated, that they would afford the true 
keys to the Spiritual World. As Gravitation 
is practically lost sight of when we pass into 
the domain of life, so Biogenesis would be lost 
.sight of as we enter the Spiritual Sphere. 

We must first separate in this statement the 
old confusion of Law and energy. Gravitation 
is not lost sight of in the organic world. Grav- 
ity may be, to a certain extent, but not Gravita- 
tion ; and gravity only where a higher power 
counteracts its action. At the same time it is 
not to be denied that the conspicuous thing in 
Organic Nature is not the great Inorganic Law. 

But the objection turns upon the statement 
that reasoning from analogy we should expect, 
in turn, to lose sight of Biogenesis as we enter 
the Spiritual Sphere. One answer to which is 



INTRODUCTION. 65 

that, as a matter of fact, we do not lose sight 
of it. So far from being invisible, it lies across 
the very threshold of the Spiritual World, and, 
as we shall see, pervades it everywhere. What 
we lose sight of, to a certain extent, is the 
natural lno<i. In the Spiritual World that is 
not the conspicuous thing, and it is obscure 
there just as gravity becomes obscure in the 
Organic, because something higher, more po- 
tent, more characteristic of the higher plane, 
comes in. That there are higher energies, so 
to speak, in the Spiritual World is, of course, 
to be affirmed alike on the ground of analogy 
and of experience ; but it does not follow that 
these necessitate other Laws. A Law has 
nothing to do with potency. We may lose 
sight of a substance, or of an energy, but it is 
an abuse of language to talk of losing sight of 
Laws. 

Are there, then, no other Laws in the Spirit- 
ual World except those which are the projec- 
tions or extensions of Natural Laws ? From 
the number of Natural Laws which are found 
in the higher sphere, from the large territory 
actually embraced by them, and from their 
special prominence throughout the whole re- 
gion, it may at least be answered that the mar- 
gin left for them is small. But if the objection 
is pressed that it is contrary to the analog}^, 
and unreasonable in itself, that there should 
not be new Laws for this higher sphere, the 
reply is obvious. Let these Laws be produced. 
If the spiritual nature, in inception, growth, 
and development, does not follow natural prin- 

5 



66 INTRODUCTION. 

ciples, let the true principles be stated and ex- 
plained. We have not denied that there may 
be new Laws. One would ahnost be surprised 
if there were not. The mass of material handed 
over from the natural to the spiritual, continu- 
ous, apparently, from the natural to the spirit- 
ual, is so great that till that is worked out it 
will be impossible to say what space is still 
left unembraced by Laws that are known. At 
present it is impossible even approximately to 
estimate the size of that supposed terra incog- 
nita. From one point of view it ought to be 
vast, from another extremely small. But how- 
ever large the region governed b}'- the suspected 
new Laws may be that cannot .diminish by a 
hair's-breadth the size of the territory where 
the old Laws still prevail. That territory it- 
self, relatively to us tliough perhaps not abso- 
lutely, must be of great extent. The size of the 
key which is to open it, that is, the size of all the 
Natural Laws Avhich can be found to apply, is 
a guarantee that the region of the knowable 
in the Spiritual World is at least as Avide as 
these regions of the Natural World which by 
the help of these Laws have been explored. 
No doubt also there yet remain some Natural 
Laws to be discovered, and these in time may 
have a further light to shed on the spiritual 
field. Then we may know all that is? By no 
means. We may only know all that may be 
known. And that may be very little. Tlie 
Sovereign Will which sways the sceptre of that 
invisible empire must be granted a right of 
freedom — that freedom which by putting it 



INTRODUCTION. 67 

into our wills He surely teaches us to honor 
in His. In much of His dealing with us also, 
in what may be called the paternal relation, 
there may seem no special Law — no Law ex- 
cept the highest of all, that Law of which all 
other Laws are parts, that Law which neither 
Nature can wholly reflect nor the mind begin 
to fathom — the Law of Love. He adds noth- 
ing to that, however, who loses sight of all 
other Laws in that, nor does he take from it 
who finds specific Laws everywhere radiating 
from it. 

With regard to the supposed new Laws of 
the Spiritual World — those Laws, that is, 
which are found for the first time in the Spirit- 
ual World, and have no analogies lower down — 
there is this to be said, that there is one strong 
reason against exaggerating either their num- 
ber or importance — their importance at least 
for our immediate needs. The connection be- 
tween language and the Law of Continuity has 
been referred to incidentally already. It is 
clear that we can only express the Spiritual 
Laws in language borrowed from the visible 
universe. Being dependent for our vocab- 
ulary on images, if an altogether new and 
foreign set of Laws existed in the Spiritual 
World, they could never take shape as definite 
ideas from mere want of words. The hypo- 
thetical new Laws which may remain to be dis- 
covered in the domain of Natural or Mental 
Science may afford some index of these hypo- 
thetical higher laws, but this would of course 
mean that the latter were no longer foreign 



68 INTRODUCTION. 

but in analogy, or, likelier still, identical. If, 
on the other hand, the Natural Laws of the 
future have nothing to say of these higher 
Laws, what can be said of them ! Where is 
the language to come from in which to frame 
them ? If their disclosure could be of any 
practical use to us, we may be sure the clue 
to them, the revelation of them, in some way 
would have been put into Nature. If, on the 
contrary, they are not to be of immediate use 
to man, it is better they should not embarrass 
him. After all, then, our knowledge of higher 
Law must be limited by our knowledge of the 
lower. The Natural Laws as at present 
known, whatever additions may yet be made 
to them, give a fair rendering of the facts of 
Nature. And their analogies or their pro- 
jections in the Spiritual Sphere may also be 
said to offer a fair account of that sphere, or 
of one or two conspicuous departments of it. 
The time has come for that account to 
be given. The greatest among the theological 
Laws are the Laws of Nature in disguise. It 
will be the splendid task of the theology of the 
future to take off the mask and disclose to 
a waning scepticism the naturalness of the 
supernatural. 

It is almost singular that the identification 
of the Laws of the Spiritual World with the 
Laws of Nature should so long have escaped 
recognition. For apart from the probability 
on a priori gvoxxnds, it is involved in the whole 
structure of Parable. When any two Phe- 
nomena in the two spheres are seen to be anal- 



INTRODUCTION. 69 

ogous, the parallelism must depend upon the 
fact that the Laws governhig them are not 
analogous but identical. And yet this basis 
for Parable seems to have been overlooked. 
Thus Principal Shairp : — " This seeing of 
Spiritual truths mirrored in the face of 
Nature rests not on any fancied, but in a real 
analogy between the natural and the spiritual 
worlds. They are in some seiise ^vhich scie?ice 
has not ascertained^ but which the vital and re- 
ligious imagination can perceive, counterparts 
one of the other." ^ But is not this the ex- 
planation, that parallel Phenomena depend 
upon identical Laws ? It is a question indeed 
whether one can speak of Laws at all as being 
analogous. Phenomena are parallel, Laws 
which make them so are themselves one. 

In discussing the relations of the Natural and 
Spiritual kingdom, it has been all but implied 
hitherto that the Spiritual Laws were framed 
originally on the plan of the Natural ; and the 
impression one might receive in studying the 
two worlds for the first time from the side 
of analogy would naturally be that the lower 
world was formed first, as a kind of scaffolding 
on which the higher and Spiritual should be 
afterwards raised. Now the exact opposite has 
been the case. The first in the field was the 
Spiritual World. 

It is not necessary to reproduce here in 
detail the argument which has been stated 
recently with so much force in the '' Unseen 

1 "Poetic Interpretation of IS'ature," p. 115. 



70 INTR OB UCTION. 

Universe." The conclusion of that work re- 
mains still unassailed, that the visible universe 
has been developed from* the unseen. Apart 
from the general proof from the Law of Con- 
tinuity, the more special grounds of such a 
conclusion are, first, the fact insisted upon by 
Herschel and Clerk-Maxwell that the atoms of 
which the visible universe is built up bear dis- 
tinct marks of being manufactured articles ; 
and, secondly, the origin in time of the visible 
universe is implied from known facts with re- 
gard to the dissipation of energy. With the 
gradual aggregation of mass the energy of the 
universe has been slowly disappearing, and 
this loss of energy must go on until none 
remains. There is, therefore, a point in time 
when the energy of the universe must come to 
an end ; and that which has its end in time 
cannot be infinite, it must also have had a 
beginning in time. Hence the unseen existed 
before the seen. 

There is nothing so especially exalted there- 
fore in the Natural Laws in themselves as to 
make one anxious to find them blood relations of 
the Spiritual. It is not only because these Laws 
are on the ground, more accessible therefore to 
us who are but groundlings ; not only, as the 
" Unseen Universe " points out in another con- 
nection, " because they are at the bottom of the 
list — are in fact the simplest and lowest — that 
they are capable of being most readily grasped 
by the finite intelligences of the universe." ^ 

1 6tli Edition, p. 235. 



INTB OJD UCTION. 7 1 

But their true significance lies in the fact 
that they are on the list at all, and especially 
in that the list is the same list. Their dignity 
as not as ]N"atural Laws, but as Spiritual Laws, 
Laws which, as already said, at one end are deal- 
ing with Matter, and at the other with Spirit. 
" The physical properties of matter form the 
alphabet which is put into our hands by God, 
the study of which, if properly conducted, will 
enable us more perfectly to read that great 
book which we call the ' Universe.' " ^ But, 
over and above this, the Natural Laws will en- 
able us to read that great duplicate which we 
call the " L^nseen Universe," and to think and 
live in fuller harmony with it. After all, the 
true greatness of Law lies in its vision of the 
Unseen. Law in the visible is the Invisible in 
the visible. And to speak of Laws as Natural 
is to define them in their application to a part 
'Of the universe, the sense-part, whereas a wider 
survey would lead us to regard all Law as 
essentially Spiritual. To magnify the Laws of 
Nature, as Laws of this small world of ours, is 
to take a provincial view of the universe. Law 
is great not because the phenomenal world is 
great, but because these vanishing lines are the 
avenues into the eternal Order. 

" Is it less reverent to regard the universe 
as an illimitable avenue which leads up to God, 
than to look upon it as a limited area bounded 
by an impenetrable wall, which, if we could 
only pierce it, would admit us at once into the 

1 6th Edition, p. 286. 



72 INTRODUCTION. 

presence of the Eternal ? " ^ Indeed the authors 
of the " Unseen Universe " demur even to the 
expression material universe^ since, as they tell 
us " Matter is (though it may seem paradoxical 
to say so) the less important half of the 
material of the physical universe." ^ And even 
Mr. Huxley, though in a different sense, as- 
sures us, with Descartes, " that we know more 
of mind than we do of body ; that the im- 
material world is a firmer reality than the 
material." ^ 

How the priority of the Spiritual improves 
the strength and meaning of the whole argu- 
ment will be seen at once. The lines of the 
Spiritual existed first, and it was natural to 
expect that when the "Intelligence resident 
in the ' Unseen ' " proceeded to frame the 
material universe He should go upon the lines 
already laid down. He would, in short, simply 
project the higher Laws downward, so that the 
Natural World would become an incarnation, 
a visible representation, a working model of 
the Spiritual. The whole function of the 
material world lies here. The world is only 
a thing that is; it is not. It is a thing that 
teaches, yet not even a thing — a show that 
shows, a teaching shadow. However useless 
the demonstration otherwise, philosophy does 
well in proving that matter is a non-entity. 
We work with it as the mathematician with an 
X. The reality is alone the Spiritual. " It is 

1 *' Unseen Universe," p. 96. ^ Xbid., p. 100. 

3 " Science and Culture," p. 259." 



INTRODUCTION. 73 

very well for physicists to speak of ' matter,' 
bub for men generally to call this ' a material 
world ' is an absurdity. Should we call it an 
0?- world it would mean as much, viz., that we 
do not know what it is." ^ When shall we 
learn the true mysticism of one who was yet 
far from being a mystic — " We look not at the 
things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen ; for the things which are seen 
are temporal, but the things which are not 
seen are eternal ? " ^ The visible is the ladder 
up to the invisible ; the temporal is but the 
scaffolding of the eternal. And when the last 
immaterial souls have climbed through this 
material to God, the scaffolding shall be taken 
down, and the earth dissolved with fervent 
heat — not because it was base, but because its 
work is done. 

^Hinton's " Philosophy and Religion," p. 40, 
2 Cor. iv. 18. 



BIOGENESIS. 



** What we require is no new Revelation, but simply 
an adequate conception of the true essence of Christi- 
anity. And I believe that, as time goes on, the work 
of the Holy Spirit will be continuously shown in the 
gradual insight which the human race will attain into 
the true essence of the Christian religion. I am thus 
of opinion that a standing miracle exists, and that it 
has ever existed — a direct and continued influence 
exerted by the supernatural on the natural." 

Paradoxical Philosophy. 



BIOGENESIS. 

** He that hath the Son hath Life, and he that hath 
not the Son of God hath not Life." — John, 
*'Omne vivum ex vivo." — Harvey, 

For two hundred years the scientific world 
has been rent with discussions upon the Origin 
of Life. Two great schools have defended 
exactly opposite views — one that matter can 
spontaneously generate life, the other that life 
can only come from pre-existing life. The 
doctrine of Spontaneous Generation, as the 
first is called, has been revived within recent 
years by Dr. Bastian, after a series of elaborate 
experiments on the Beginnings of Life. Stated 
in his own words, his conclusion is this : 
"Both observation and experiment unmistak- 
ably testify to the fact that living matter is con- 
tantly being formed de novo,, in obedience to 
the same laws and tendencies which determine 
all the more simple chemical combinations." ^ 
Life, that is to say, is not the Gift of Life. It 
is capable of springing into being of itself. It 
can be Spontaneously Generated. 

1 *' Beginnings of Life." By H. C. Bastian, M.A., 
M.D., F.Pv.S. Macmillan, vol. ii. p. 633. 

77 



78 BIOGENESIS. 

This announcement called into the field a 
phalanx of observers, and the highest author- 
ities in biological science engaged themselves 
afresh upon tlie problem. The experiments 
necessary to test the matter can be followed 
or repeated by anyone possessing the slightest 
manipulative skill. Glass vessels are three- 
parts filled with infusions of hay or any 
organic matter. They are boiled to kill all 
germs of life, and hermetically sealed to exclude 
the outer air. The air inside, having been 
exposed to the boiling temperature for many 
hours, is supposed to be likewise dead; so 
that any life which may subsequently appear 
in the closed flasks must have sprung into be- 
ing of itself. In Bastian's experiments after 
every expedient to secure sterility, life did 
appear inside in myriad quantity. Therefore, 
he argued, it was spontaneously generated. 

But the phalanx of observers found two 
errors in this calculation. Professor Tyndall 
repeated the same experiment, only with a 
precaution to ensure absolute sterility sug- 
gested by the most recent science — a discovery 
of his own. After every care, he conceived 
there might still be undestroyed germs in the 
air inside the flasks. If the air were absolutely 
germless and pure, would the myriad life 
appear ? He manipulated his experimental 
vessels in an atmosphere which under the high 
test of optical purity — the most delicate known 
test — was absolutely germless. Here not a 
vestige of life appeared. He varied the experi- 



BIOGENESIS, 79 

ment in every direction, but matter in the 
germless air never yielded life. 

The other error was detected by Mr. Dal- 
linger. He found among the lower forms of 
life the most surprising and indestructible 
vitality. Many animals could survive much 
higher temperatures than Dr. Bastian had 
applied to annihilate them. Some germs 
almost refused to be annihilated — they were 
all but fire-proof. 

These experiments have practically closed 
the question. A decided and authoritative 
conclusion has now taken its place in science. 
So far as science can settle anything, this ques- 
tion is settled. The attempt to get the living 
out of the dead has * failed. Spontaneous 
Generation has had to be given up. And it 
is now recognized on every hand that Life can 
only come from the touch of Life. Huxley 
categorically announces that the doctrine of 
Biogenesis, or life only from life, is "victo- 
rious along the whole line at the present day." ^ 
And even whilst confessing that he wishes the 
evidence were the other way, Tyndall is com- 
pelled to say, " I affirm that no shred of trust- 
worthy experimental testhnony exists to prove 
that life in our day has ever appeared inde- 
pendently of antecedent life." ^ 

For much more than two hundred years a 
similar discussion has dragged its length 
through the religious world. Two great schools 

* " Critiques and Addresses." T. H. Huxley, F. E. S., 
p. 239. ^Nineteenth Century, 1878, p. 507. 



80 , BIOGENESIS. 

here also have defended exactly opposite views 
— one that the Spiritual Life in man can only 
come from pre-existing Life, the other that it 
can Spontaneously Generate itself. Taking 
its stand upon the initial statement of the 
Author of the Spiritual Life, one small school, 
in the face of derision and opposition, has 
persistently maintained the doctrine of Bio- 
genesis. Another, larger and with greater pi'e- 
tension to philosophic form, has defended 
Spontaneous Generation. The weakness of the 
former school consists — though this has been 
much exaggerated — in its more or less general 
adherence to the extreme view that religion 
had nothing to do with the natural life ; the 
weakness of the latter lay in yielding to the 
more fatal extreme that it had nothing to do 
with anything else. That man, being a wor- 
shipping animal by nature, ought to maintain 
certain relations to the Supreme Being, was 
indeed to some extent conceded by the natu- 
ralistic school, but religion itself w^as looked 
upon as a thing to be spontaneously generated 
by the evolution of character in the laboratory 
of common life. 

The difference between the two positions is 
radical. Translating from the language of 
Science into that of Religion, the theory of 
Spontaneous Generation is simply that a man 
may become gradually better and better until 
in course of the process he reaches that quality 
of religious nature known as Spiritual Law\ 
This Life is not something added ab extra to 
the natural man ; it is the normal and appro- 



BIOGENESIS. 81 

pi'iate development of the natural man. Bio- 
genesis opposes to this the whole doctrine of 
Regeneration. The Spiritual Life is the gift 
of the Living Spirit. The spiritual man is no 
mere development of the natural man. He is 
a New Creation born from Above. As well 
expect a hay infusion to become gradually 
more and more living until in course of the 
process it reached Vitality, as expect a man by 
becoming better and better to attain the Eter- 
nal Life. 

The advocates of Biogenesis in Religion have 
founded their argument hitherto all but ex- 
clusively on Scripture. The relation of the 
doctrine to the constitution and course of 
Nature was not disclosed. Its importance, 
therefore, was solely as a dogma ; and being 
directly concerned with the Supernatural, it 
was valid for those alone who chose to accept 
the Supernatural. 

Yet it has been keenly felt by those who 
attempt to defend this doctrine of the origin of 
the Spiritual Life, that they have nothing more 
to oppose to the rationalistic view than the 
i2:>se dixit of Revelation. The argument from 
experience, in the nature of the case, is seldom 
easy to apply, and Christianity has always 
found at this point a genuine difficulty in meet- 
ing the challenge of Natural Religions. The 
direct authority of Nature, using Nature in its 
limited sense, was not here to be sought for. 
On such a question its voice was necessarily 
silent ; and all that the apologist could look 
for lower down was a distant echo or analogy. 
6 



82 BIOGENESIS. 

All that is really possible, indeed, is such ' an 
analogy ; and if that can now be found in 
Biogenesis, Christianity in its most central posi- 
tion secures at length a support and basis in 
the Laws of Nature. 

Up to the present time the analogy required 
has. not been forthcoming. There was no 
known parallel in Nature for the spiritual 
phenomena in question. But now the case is 
altered. With the elevation of Biogenesis to 
the rank of a scientific fact, all problems con- 
cerning the Origin of Life are placed on a differ-, 
ent footing. And it remains to be seen whether 
Religion cannot at once re-affirm and reshape 
its argument in the light of this modern truth. 

If the doctrine of the Spontaneous Genera- 
tion of Spiritual Life can be met on scientific 
grounds, it will mean the removal of the most 
serious enemy Christianity has to deal with, 
and especially within its own borders, at the 
present day. The religion of Jesus has prob- 
ably always suffered more from those who 
have misunderstood than fi*om those who have 
opposed it. Of the multitudes who confess 
Christianity at this hour how many have clear 
in their minds the cardinal distinction estab- 
lished by its Founder between " born of the 
flesh "and "born of the^ Spirit?" By how 
many teachers of Christianity even is not this 
fundamental postulate persistently ignored ? 
A thousand modern pulpits every seventh day 
are preaching the doctrine of Spontaneous 
Generation. The finest and best of recent 
poetry is colored with this same error. Spon- 



BIOGENESIS, 83 

taneous Generation is the leading theology of 
the modern religious or irreligious novel ; and 
much of the most serious and cultured writ- 
ing of the day devotes itself to earnest preach- 
ing of this impossible gospel. The current 
conception of the Christian religion in short — 
the conception which is held not only popularly 
but hymen of culture — is founded upon a view 
of its origin which, if it were true, W'ould ren- 
der the whole scheme abortive. 

Let us first place vividly in our imagination 
the picture of the two great Kingdoms of Na- 
ture, the inorganic and organic, as these now 
stand in the light of the Law of Biogenesis. 
What essentially is involved in saying that 
there is no Spontaneous Generation of Life ? 
It is meant that the passage from the mineral 
world to the plant or animal world is hermet- 
ically sealed on the mineral side. This in- 
organic world is staked off from the living 
world by barriers which have never yet been 
crossed from within. No change of substance, 
no modification of environment, no chemistry, 
no electricity, nor any form of energy, nor any 
evolution can endow any single atom of the 
mineral world with the attribute of Life. Only 
by bending down into this dead world of some 
living form can these dead atoms be gifted 
with the properties of vitality, without this 
prreliminary contact with Life they remain 
fixed in the inorganic sphere forever. It is a 
very mysterious Law which guards in this 
way the portals of the living world. And if 
there is one thing in Nature more w^orth pon- 



84 BIOGENESIS, 

dering for its strangeness it is the spectacle of 
this vast helpless world of the dead cut off 
from the living by the Law of Biogenesis and 
denied forever the possibility of resurrection 
within itself. So very strange a thing, indeed, 
is this broad line in Nature, that Science has 
long and urgently sought to obliterate it. Bio- 
genesis stands in the way of some forms of 
Evolution with such stern persistency that the 
assaults upon this Law for number and thor- 
oughness have been unparalleled. But, as we 
have seen, it has stood the test. Nature, to 
the modern eye, stands broken in two. The 
physical Laws may explain the inorganic 
world ; the biological Laws may account for the 
development of the organic. But of the point 
where they meet, of that strange borderland 
between the dead and the living. Science is si- 
lent. It is as if God had placed everything in 
earth and heaven in the hands of Nature, but 
reserved a point at the genesis of Life for His 
direct appearing. 

The power of the analogy, for which we are 
laying the foundations, to seize and impress 
the mind, will largely depend on the vividness 
with which one realizes the gulf which Nature 
places between the living and the dead.^ But 



' This being tlie crucial point it may not be inappro- 
priate to supplement the quotations ah'eady given in the 
text with the following: — 

" We are in the presence of the one incommunicable 
gulf — the gulf of all gulfs — that gulf which Mr. Hux- 
ley's protoplasm is as powerless to efface as any other 
material expedient that has ever been suggested since 



BIOGENESIS. 85 

those who, in contemplating Nature, have 
found their attention arrested by this extraor- 
dinary dividing-line severing the visible uni- 
verse eternally into two ; those who in watch- 
ing the progress of science have seen barrier 
after barrier disappear — barrier between plant 
and plant, between animal and animal, and even 
between animal and plant — but this gulf yawn 
more hopelessly wide with every advance of 
knowledge, will be prepared to attach a signifi- 
cance to the Law of Biogenesis and its analogies 
more profound perhaps than to any other fact 
or law in Nature. If, as Pascal says, Nature 
is an image of grace ; if the things that are 
seen are in any sense the images of the un- 
seen, there must lie in this great gulf fixed, 
this most unique and startling of all natural 
phenomena, a meaning of peculiar moment. 



the eyes of men first looked into it — the mighty gulf 
between death and life." — ''As Regards Protoplasm." 
By J. Hutchinson Sterling, LL.D., p. 42. 

" The present state of knowledge furnishes us with 
no link between the living and the not-living." — Hux- 
ley, *' Encyclopaedia Britannica" (new Ed.). Art. 
*' Biology." 

" Whoever recalls to mind the lamentable failure of 
all the attempts made very recently to discover a de- 
cided support for the generatio oequwoca in the lower 
forms of transition from the inorganic to the organic 
world, will feel it doubly serious to demand that this 
theory, so utterly discredited, should be in any way ac- 
cepted as the basis of all our views of life." — Yirchow : 
*' The Freedom of Science in the Modern State." " All 
really scientific experience tells us that life can be pro- 
duced from a living antecedent only." — *' The Unseen 
Universe." 6th Ed. p. 229. 



86 BIOGENESIS. 

Where now in the Spiritual spheres shall we 
meet a companion phenomenon to this ? AVhat 
in the Unseen shall be likened this deep divid- 
ing-line, or where in human experience is an- 
other barrier which never can be crossed? 

There is such a barrier. In the dim but not 
inadequate vision of the Spiritual AVorld pre- 
sented in the Word of God, the first thing that 
strikes the eye is a great gulf fixed. The pass- 
age from the Natural World to the Spiritual 
World is hermetically sealed on the natural 
side. The door from the inorganic to the or- 
ganic is shut, no mineral can open it; so the 
door from the natural to the spiritual is shut, 
and no man can open it. This world of 
natural men is staked off from the Spiritual 
World by barriers which have never yet been 
crossed from within. No organic change, no 
modification of environment, no mental energy, 
no moral effort, no evolution of character, no 
progress of civilization can endow any single 
human soul with the attribute of Spiritual 
Life. The Spiritual World is guarded from 
the world next in order beneath it by a law of 
Biogenesis — except a man he horn again . . . 
except a man he horn of vmter and of the Spirit^ 
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. 

It is not said in this enunciation of the law, 
that if the condition be not fulfilled the natural 
man vnll not enter the Kingdom of God. The 
word is cannot. For the exclusion of the 
spiritually inorganic from the Kingdom of the 
spiritually organic is not arbitrary. Nor is the 
natural man refused admission on unexplained 



BIOGENESIS. 87 

grounds. His admission is a scientific impos- 
sibility. Except a mineral be born " from 
above" — from the Kingdom just above it — it 
cannot enter the Kingdom just above it. And 
except a man be born '' from above," by the same 
law, he cannot enter the Kingdom just above 
him. There being no passage from one King- 
dom to another, whether from inorganic to or- 
ganic, or from organic to spiritual, the inter- 
vention of Life is a scientific necessity if a 
stone or a plant or an animal or a man is to pass 
from a lower to a higher sphere. The plant 
stretches down to the dead world beneath it, 
touches its minerals and gases with its mystery 
of Life, and brings them up ennobled and 
transformed to the living sphere. The breath 
of God, blowing where it listeth, touches with 
its mystery of Life the dead souls of men, 
bears them across the bridgeiess gulf between 
the natural and the spiritual, between the spir- 
itually inorganic and the spiritually organic, 
endows them with its own high qualities, and 
develops within them these new and secret 
faculties, by which those who are born again 
are said to see the Kingdom of God. 

What is the evidence for this great gulf 
fixed at the portals of the Spiritual World ? 
Does Science close this gate, or Reason, or 
Experience, or Revelation? We reply, all 
four. The initial statement, it is not to be 
denied, reaches us from Revelation. But is 
not this evidence here in court? Or shall it 
be said that any argument deduced from this 
is a transparent circle — that after all we simply 



88 BIOGENESIS, 

come back to the unsiibstantiality of the ipse 
dixit. Not altogether, for the analogy lends an 
altogether new authority to the ipse dixit. 
liow substantial that argument really is, is 
seldom realized. We yield the point here 
much too easily. The right of the Spirit- 
ual World to speak of its own phenomena is 
as secure as the right of the Natural World to 
speak of itself. What is Science but what the 
Natural World has said to natural men? 
What is Revelation but what the Spiritual 
World has said to Spiritual men? Let us at 
least ask what Revelation has announced with 
reference to the Spiritual Law of Biogenesis ; 
afterwards we shall inquire whether Science, 
while endorsing the verdict, may not also have 
some further vindication of its title to be 
heard. 

The words of Scripture which preface this 
inquiry contain an explicit and original state- 
ment of the Law of Biogenesis for the Sphitual 
Life. " He that hath the Son hatli Life, and 
he that hath not the Son of God hath not 
Life." Life, that is to say, depends upon con- 
tact with Life. It cannot spring up of itself. 
It cannot develop out of anything that is not 
Life. There is no Spontaneous Generation in 
religion any more than in Nature. Christ is 
the source of Life in the Spiritual World ; and 
he that hath the Son hath Life, and he that 
hath not the Son, whatever else he may have, 
hath not Life. Here, in short, is the categori- 
cal denial of Abiogenesis and the establishment 
in this high field of the classical formula 



BIOGENESIS. 89 

Omne vimim ex vivo — no Life without an- 
tecedent Life. In this mystical theory of the 
Origin of Life the whole of the New Testament 
writers are agreed. And, as we have already 
seen, Christ Himself founds Christianity upon 
Biogenesis stated in its most literal form. 
'' Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of 
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; 
and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. 
Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be 
born again." ^ Why did He add Marvel not? 
Did He seek to allay the fear in the bewildered 
ruler's mind that there was more in this novel 
doctrine than a simple analogy from the first 
to the second birth ? 

The attitude of the natural man, again, with 
reference to the Spiritual, is a subject on wdiich 
the IsTew Testament is equally pronounced. 
Not only in his relation to the spiritual man, 
but to the whole Spiritual World, the natural 
man is regarded as dead. He is as a crystal 
to an organism. The natural world is to the 
Spiritual as the inorganic to the organic. " To 
be carnally minded is DeatliP ^ "Thou hast a 
name to live, but art Dead.'''' ^ " She that 
liveth in pleasure is Dead w^hile she liveth." 4 
"To you hath He given Life which were Dead 
in trespasses and sins." s 

It is clear that a remarkable harmony exists 
here between the Organic World as arranged 

1 John iii. ^ Rom. viii. 6. ^ Rev. iii. 1. 

4 1 Tim. V. 6. 5 Eph. 11. 1, 5. 



90 BIOGENESIS, 

by Science and the Spiritual World as arranged 
by Scripture. We find one great Law guarding 
the thresholds of both worlds, securing that 
entrance from a lower sphere shall only take 
place by a direct regenerating act, and that 
emanating from the world next in order above. 
There are not two laws of Biogenesis, one for 
the natural, the other for the Spiritual ; one 
law is for both. Wherever there is Life, Life 
of any kind, this same law holds. The an- 
alogy, therefore, is only among the phenomena; 
between laws there is no analogy — there is 
Continuity. Li either case, the first step in 
peopling these worlds with the appropriate 
living forms is virtually miracle. Nor in one 
case is there less of mystery in the act than in 
the other. The second birth is scarcely less 
perplexing to the theologian than the first to 
the embryologist. 

A moment's reflection ought now to make 
it clear why in the Spiritual World there had 
to be added to this mystery the further mys- 
tery of its ]3roclamation through the medium 
of Revelation. This is the point at which the 
scientific man is apt to part company with the 
theologian. He insists on having all things 
materialized before his eyes in I^ature. If 
Nature cannot discuss this with him, there is 
nothing to discuss. But Nature can discuss 
this with him — only she cannot open the dis- 
cussion or supply all the material to begin 
with. If Science averred that she could do 
this, the theologian this time must part com- 
pany with such Science. For any Science 



BIOGENESIS. 91 

which makes such a demand is false to the 
doctrines of Biogenesis. What is this but the 
demand that a lower world, hermetically sealed 
against all communication with a world above 
it, should have a mature and intelligent ac- 
quaintance with its phenomena and laws ? 
Can the mineral discourse to me of animal 
Life ? Can it tell me what lies beyond the 
narrow boundary of its inert being? Know- 
ing nothing of other than the chemical and 
physical laws, what is its criticism worth of 
the principles of Biology? And even when 
some visitor from the upper world, for example 
some root from a living tree, penetrating its 
dark recess, honors it with a touch, will it 
presume to define the form and purpose of its 
patron, or until the bioplasm has done its gra- 
cious work can it even know that it is being 
touched ? The barrier which separates King- 
doms from one another restricts mind not less 
than matter. Any information of the King- 
doms above it that could come to the mineral 
world could only come by a communication 
from above. An analogy from the lower world 
might make such communication intelligible 
a.s well as credible, but the information in the 
first instance must be vouchsafed as a revela- 
tion. Similarly if those in the Organic King- 
dom are to know anything of the Spiritual 
World, that knowledge must at least begin as 
Kevelation. Men who reject this source of 
information, by the Law of Biogenesis, can 
have no other. It is no spell of ignorance 
arbitrarily laid upon certain members of the 



92 BIOGENESIS. 

Organic Kingdom that prevents them reading 
the secrets of the Spiritual World. It is a 
scientific necessity. No exposition of the case 
could be more truly scientific than this : " The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he knotv them^ because they 
are spiritually discerned." ^ The verb here, 
it will be again observed, is potential. This 
is not a dogma of theology, but a necessity of 
Science. And Science, for the most part, has 
consistently accepted the situation. It has 
always proclaimed its ignorance of the Spir- 
itual World. When Mr. Herbert Spencer 
affirms, "Regarding Science as a gradually 
increasing sphere we may say that every addi- 
tion to its surface does but bring it into wider 
contact Avitli surrounding nescience," ^ from 
his standpoint he is quite correct. The en- 
deavors of well-meaning persons to show that 
the Agnostic's position, when he asserts his 
ignorance of the Spiritual World, is only a 
pretence ; the attempts to prove that he really 
knows a great deal about it if he would only 
admit it, are quite misplaced. He really does 
not know. The verdict that the natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 
that they are foolishness unto him, that neither 
can he know them, is final as a statement of 
scientific truth — a statement on which the 
entire Agnostic literature is simply one long 
commentary. 

MCor. ii. 14. 

2 "First Principles," 2d Ed. p. IT. 



BIOGENESIS. 93 

We are now in a better position to follow 
out the more practical bearings of Biogenesis. 
There is an immense region surrounding 
Regeneration, a dark and perplexing region 
where men would be thankful for any light. 
It may well be that Biogenesis in its many 
ramifications, may yet reach down to some ot 
the deeper mysteries of the Spiritual Life. 
But meantime there is much to define even on 
the surface. And for the present we shall 
content ourselves by turning its light upon 
one or two points of current interest. 

It must long ago have appeared how decisive 
is the answer of Science to the practical ques- 
tion with which we set out as to the possi- 
bility of a Spontaneous Development of Spir- 
itual Life in the individual soul. The inquiry 
into the Origin of Life is the fundamental 
question alike of Biology and Christianity. 
We can afford to enlarge upon it, therefore, 
even at the risk of repetition. When men are 
ott'ering us a Christianity without a living 
Spirit, and a personal religion without conver- 
sion^ no emphasis or reiteration can be extreme. 
Besides, the clearness as well as the definite- 
ness of the Testimony of Nature to any Spir- 
itual truth is of immense importance. Re- 
generation has not merely been an outstand- 
ing difficulty, but an overwhelming obscurity. 
Even to earnest minds the difficulty of grasp- 
ing the truth at all has always proved extreme. 
Philosophically one scarcely sees either the 
necessity or the possibility of being born 
again. Why a virtuous man should not 



94 BIOGENESIS. 

simply grow better and better until in his 
own right he enter the Kingdom of God is 
what thousands honestly and sincerely fail to 
understand. Now Philosophy cannot help us 
here. Her arguments are, if anything, against 
us. But Science answers to the appeal at 
once. If it be simply pointed out that this is 
the same absurdity as to ask why a stone 
should not grow more and more living till it 
enters the Organic World, the point is clear 
in an instant. 

What now, let us ask specifically, dis- 
tinguishes a Christian man from a non- 
Christian man? Is it that he has certain 
mental characteristics not possessed by the 
other ? Is it that certain faculties have been 
trained in him, that morality assumes special 
and higher manifestations, and character a 
nobler form ? Is the Christian merely an 
ordinary man who happens from birth to have 
been surrounded with a peculiar set of ideas ? 
Is his religion merely that peculiar quality of 
the moral life defined by Mr. Matthew Arnold 
as " morality touched by emotion ? " And does 
the possession of a high ideal, benevolent 
sympathies, a reverent spirit, and a favorable 
environment account for what men call his 
Spiritual Life ? 

The distinction between them is the same as 
that between the Organic and the Inorganic^ 
the living and the dead. What is the differ- 
ence between a crystal and an organism, a 
stone and a plant? They have much in com- 
mon. Both are made of the same atoms. 



BIOGENESIS. 95 

Both display the same properties of matter. 
Both tire subject to the Physical Laws. Both 
may be very beautiful. But besides possess- 
ing all that the crystal has, the plant possesses 
something more — a mysterious something 
called Life. This Life is not something which 
existed in the crystal only in a less developed 
form. There is nothing at all like it in the 
crystal. There is nothing like the first be- 
ginning of it in the crystal, not a trace or 
symptom of it. This plant is tenanted by 
something new, an original and unique posses- 
sion added over and above all the properties 
common to both. When from vegetable Life 
we rise to animal Life, here again we find 
something original and unique — unique at 
least as compared with the mineral. From 
animal Life we ascend again to Spiritual Life. 
And here also is something new, something 
still more unique. He who lives the Spiritual 
Life has a distinct kind of Life added to all the 
other phases of Life which he manifests — a 
kind of Life infinitely more distinct than is the 
active Life of a plant from the inertia of a 
stone. The Spiritual man is more distinct in 
point of fact than is the plant from the stone. 
This is the one possible comparison in Nature, 
for it is the wildest distinction in Nature ; but 
compared with the diiference between the 
Natural and the Spiritual the gulf wMch di- 
vides the organic from the inorganic is a hair's- 
breadth. The natural man belongs essentially 
to this present order of things. He is endowed 
simply with a high quality of the natural animal 



96 BIOGENESIS. 

Life. But it is Life of so poor a quality that it is 
not Life at all. He that hath not the Son hath 
not Life; but he that hath the Son hath Life 
— a new and distinct and supernatural endow- 
ment. He is not of this world. He is of the 
timeless state, of Eternity. It doth not yet ap- 
pear lohat he shall he. 

The difference then between the Spiritual 
man and the Natural man is not a difference 
of development, but of generation. It is a dis- 
tinction of quality not of quantity. A man 
cannot rise by any natural development from 
" morality touched by emotion," to " morality 
touched by Life." Were we to construct a 
scientific classification, Science would compel 
us to arrange all natural men, moral or immoral, 
educated or vulgar, as one family. One might 
be high in the family group, another low ; yet, 
practically, they are marked by the same set 
of characteristics — they eat, sleep, work, think, 
live, die. But the Spiritual man is removed 
from his family so utterly by the possession of 
an additional characteristic that a biologist, 
fully informed of the whole circumstances, 
would not hesitate a moment to classify him 
elsewhere. And if he really entered into these 
circumstances it would not be in another family 
but in another Kingdom. It is an old-fashioned 
theology which divides the world in this way 
— which speaks of men as Living and Dead, 
Lost and Saved — a stern theology all but fallen 
into disuse. This difference between the Liv- 
ing and the Dead in souls is so unproved by 
casual observation, so impalpable in itself, so 



BIOGENESIS. \)( 

startling as a doctrine, that schools of culture 
have ridiculed or denied the grim distinction. 
Nevertheless the grim distinction must be re- 
tained. It is a scientific distinction. "He 
that hath not the Son hath not Life." 

Now it is this great Law which finally dis- 
tinguishes Christianity from all other religions. 
It places the religion of Christ upon a footing 
altogether unique. 

There is no analogy between the Christian 
religion and, say, Buddhism or the Moham- 
medan religion. There is no true sense in 
which a man can say, He that hath Buddha 
hath Life. Buddha has nothing to do with 
Life. He may have something to do with mo- 
rality. He may stimulate, impress, teach, 
guide, but there is no distinct new thing added 
to the souls of those who profess Buddhis^n. 
These religions may be developments of the 
natural, mental, or moral man. But Christi- 
anity professes to be more. It is the mental 
or moral nvcxn plus something else or some One 
else. It is the infusion into the Spiritual man 
of a New Life, of a quality unlike anything 
else in Nature. This constitutes the separate 
Kingdom of Christ, and gives to Christianity 
alone of all the religions of mankind the 
strange mark of Divinity. 

Shall we next inquire more precisely what 
is this something extra which constitutes 
Spiritual Life ? What is this strange and new 
endowment in its nature and vital essence? 
And the answer is brief — it is Christ. He 
chat hath the Son hath Life. 
7 



98 BIOGENESIS. 

Are we forsaking the lines of Science in 
saying so ? Yes and No. Science has drawn 
for us the distinction. It has no voice as to 
tlie nature of the distinction except this — that 
the new endowment is a something different 
from anything else with which it deals. It is 
not ordinary Vitality, it is not intellectual, it 
is not mora], but something beyond. And 
Revelation steps in and names what it is — it is 
Christ. Out of the multitude of sentences 
where this announcement is made, these few 
may be selected: "Know ye not your own 
selves how that Jesus Christ is in you ? " ^ 
"Your bodies are the members of Christ."^ 
"At that day ye shall know that I am in the 
Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."^ "We 
will come unto him and make our abode with 
him." ^ "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." ^ 
" I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." ^ 

Three things are clear from these state- 
ments : First, They are not mere figures of 
rhetoric. They are explicit declarations. If 
language means anything these words an- 
nounce a literal fact. In some of Christ's own 
statements the literalism is if possible still 
more impressive. For instance, "Except ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his 
blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth 
My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal 
life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. 



1 2 Cor. xii. 5. 2^ Cor. vi. 15. ^ John xiv. 10. 
4 John xiv. 21-23. ^ John xv. 4. « Gal. ii. 20. 



BIOGENESIS. 99 

For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is 
drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and 
drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in 
himr 

In the second place, Spiritual Life is not 
something outside ourselves. The idea is not 
that Clirist is in heaven and that we can 
stretch out some mysterious faculty and deal 
with llim there. This is the vague form in 
which many conceive the truth, but it is con- 
trary to Christ's teaching and to the analogy 
of nature. Vegetable Life is not contained in 
a reservoir somewhere in the skies, and meas- 
ured out spasmodically at certain seasons. 
The Life is in every plant and tree, inside its 
own substance and tissues, and continues there 
until it dies. This localization of Life in the 
individual is precisely the point where Vitality 
differs from the other forces of nature, such as 
magnetism and electricity. Vitality has much 
in common with such forces as magnetism 
and electricity, but there is one inviolable dis- 
tinction between them — tliat Life is perma- 
nently fixed and rooted in the organism. The 
doctrines of conservation and transformation 
of energy, that is to say, do not hold for 
Vitality. The electrician can demagnetize a 
bar of iron, that is, he can transform its energy 
of magnetism into something else — heat, or 
motion, or light — and then re-form these back 
into magnetism. For magnetism has no root, 
no individuality, no fixed indwelling. But the 
biologist cannot devitalize a plant or an animal 



100 BIOGENESIS. 

and revivify it again.^ Life is not one of the 
homeless forces which promiscuously inhabit 
space, or which can be gathered like electricity 
from the clouds and dissipated back again 
into space. Life is definite and resident ; and 
Spiritual Life is not a visit from a force, but a 
resident tenant in the soul. 

This is, however, to formulate the statement 
of the third point, that spiritual Life is not an 
ordinary form of energy or force. The analogy 
from Nature endorses this, but here ISTature 
stops. It cannot say what Spiritual Life is. 
Indeed what natural Life is remains unknown, 
and the word Life still wanders through 
Science without a definition. Nature is silent, 
therefore, and must be as to Spiritual Life. 
But in the absence of natural light we fall 
back upon that, complementary revelation 
which always shines when truth is necessary 
and where Nature fails. We ask with Paul 
when this Life first visited him on the Da- 
mascus road. What is this ? " Who art Thou, 
Lord ? " And we hear, '' I am Jesus." ^ 

We must expect to find this denied. Be- 
sides a proof from Revelation, this is an argu- 
ment from experience. And yet we shall still 

1 One must not be misled by popular statements in 
this connection, such as this of Professor Owen's : 
'* There are organisms which we can devitalize and re- 
vitahze — devive and revive — many times." {Monthly 
Microscopical Journal^ May, 1869, p. 294.) The refer- 
ence is of course to the extraordinary capacity for resus- 
citation possessed by many of the Protozoa and other 
low forms of life. 

^Acts ix. 5. 



BIOGENESIS. 101 

be told that this Spiritual Life is a force. But 
let it be remembered what this means in 
Science, it means the heresy of confounding 
Force with Vitality. We must also expect to 
be told that this Spiritual Life is simply a 
development of ordinary Life — just as Dr. 
Bastian tells us that natural Life is foimed 
according to the same laws which determine 
the more simple chemical combinations. But 
remember what this means in Science. It is 
the heresy of Spontaneous Generation, a heresy 
so thoroughly discredited now that scarcely 
an authority in Europe will lend his name to 
it. Who art Thou, Lord ? Unless we are to 
be allowed to hold Spontaneous Generation 
there is no alternative : Life can only come 
from Life : " I am Jesus." 

A hundred other questions now rush into 
the mind about this Life : How does it come? 
Why does it come? How is it manifested? 
What faculty does it employ ? Where does it 
reside? Is it communicable? What are its 
conditions ? One or two of these questions 
may be vaguely answered, the rest bring us 
face to face with mystery. Let it not be 
thought that the scientific treatment of a 
Spiritual subject has reduced religion to a 
problem of 2:)hysics, or demonstrated God 
by the laws of biology. A religion without 
mystery is an absurdity. Even Science has 
its mysteries, none more inscrutable than 
around this Science of Life. It taught us 
sooner or later to expect mystery, and now we 
enter its domain. Let it be carefully marked, 



102 BIOGENESIS. 

however, that the cloud does not fall and cover 
us till we have ascertamed the most moment- 
ous truth of Religion — that Christ is in the 
Christian. 

Not that there is anything new in/his. The 
Churches have always held that Christ was 
the source of Life. No spiritual man ever 
claims that his spirituality is his own. "I 
live," he will tell you ; " nevertheless it is not 
I, but Christ liveth in me." Christ our Life 
has indeed been the only doctrine in the 
Christian Church from Paul to Augustine, from 
Calvin to Newman. Yet, when the Spiritual 
man is cross-examined upon this confession it 
is astonishing to find what uncertain hold it 
has upon his mind. Doctrinally he states it 
adequately and holds it unhesitatingly. But 
when pressed with the literal question he 
shrinks from the answer. We do not really 
believe that the Living Christ has touched 
us, that He makes His abode in us. Spiritual 
Life is not as real to us as natural Life. And 
we cover our retreat into unbelieving vagueness 
with a plea of reverence, justified, as we think, 
by the " Thus far and no farther " of ancient 
Scriptures. There is often a great deal of 
intellectual sin concealed under this old 
aphorism. When men do not really wish to 
go farther they find it an honorable con- 
venience sometimes to sit down on the outer- 
most edge of the Holy Ground on the pretext 
of taking off their shoes. Yet we must be 
certain that, making a virtue of reverence, we 
are not merely excusing ignorance ; or, under 



BIOGENESIS. 103 

tbe plea of mystery, evading a truth which has 
been stated in the iSTew Testament a hundred 
times, in the most literal form, and with all 
but monotonous repetition. The greatest 
truths are always the most loosely held. And 
not the least of the advantages of taking up 
this question from the present standpoint is 
that we may see how a confused doctrine can 
really bear the luminous definition of Science 
and force itself upon us with all the weight of 
Natural Law. 

What is mystery to many men, what feeds 
their worship, and at the same time spoils it, 
is that area round all great truth which is 
really capable of illumination, and into which 
every earnest mind is permitted and com- 
manded to go with a light. We cry mystery 
long before the region of mystery comes. True 
mystery casts no shadows around. It is a 
sudden and awful gulf yawning across the field 
of knowledge ; its form is irregular, but its lips 
are clean cut and sharp, and the mind can go 
to the very verge and look down the precipice 
into the dim abyss, — 

** Where writhing clouds unroll, 
Striving to utter themselves in shapes." 

We have gone with a light to the very verge of 
this truth. We have seen that the Spiritual 
Life is an endowment from the Spiritual World, 
and that the Living Spirit of Christ dwells in 
the Christian. But now the gulf yawns black 
before us. What more does Science know of 



104 BIOGENESIS. 

Life? Nothing. It knows nothing further 
about its origin in detail. It knows nothing 
about its ultimate nature. It cannot even 
define it. There is a helplessness in scientific 
books here, and a continual confession of it 
which to thoughtful minds is almost touching. 
Science, therefore, has not eliminated the true 
mysteries from our faith, but only the false. 
And it has done more. It has made true mys- 
tery scientific. Religion in having mystery is 
in analogy with all around it. Where there is 
exceptional mystery in the Spiritual world it 
will generally be found that there is a cor- 
responding mystery in the natural world. 
And, as Origen centuries ago insisted, the 
difficulties of Religion are simply the difficulties 
of Nature. 

One question more we may look at for a 
moment. What can be gathered on the surface 
as to the process of Regeneration in the in- 
dividual soul ? From the analogies of Biology 
we should expect three things : First, t4iat the 
New Life should dawn suddenly ; Second, that 
it should come " without observation " ; Third, 
that it should develop gradually. On two of 
these points there can be little controversy. 
The gradualness of growth is a characteristic 
which strikes the simplest observer. Long be- 
fore the word Evolution was coined Christ 
applied it in this very connection — " First the 
blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the 
ear." It is well known also to those who study 
the parables of Nature that there is an ascend- 
ing scale of slowness as we rise in the scale of 



BIOGENESIS. 105 

Life. Growth is most gradual in the highest 
forms. Man attains his maturity after a score 
of years ; the monad completes its humble cycle 
in a day. What wonder if development be 
tardy in the Creature of Eternity ? A Chris- 
tian's sun has sometimes set, and a critical 
world has seen as yet no corn in the ear . As 
yet? "As yet," in this long Life, has not 
begun. Grant him the years proportionate to 
his place in the scale of Life. " The time of 
harvest is not yet,'''' 

Again, in addition to being slow, the phenom- 
ena of growth are secret. Life is invisible. 
When the New Life manifests itself it is a 
surprise. Thou canst not tell ichence it cometh 
or whither it goeth. When the plant lives 
whence has the Life come? When it dies 
whither has it gone ? Thou canst not tell . . . 
so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 
For the Kingdom of God cometh without ob- 
servation. 

Yet once more, — and this is a point of 
strange and frivolous dispute, — this Life comes 
suddenly. This is the only way in which Life 
can come. Life cannot come gradually — health 
can, structure can, but not Life. A new the- 
ology has laughed at the Doctrine of Conver- 
sion. Sudden Conversion especially has been 
ridiculed as untrue to philosophy and impos- 
sible to human nature. We may not be con. 
cerned in buttressing any theology because it 
is old. But we find that this old theology is 
scientific. There may be cases — they are prob- 
ably in the majority — where the moment of 



106 BIOGENESIS. 

contact with the Living Spirit though sudden 
has been obscure. But the real moment and 
the conscious moment are two different things. 
Science pronounces nothing as to the con- 
scious moment. If it did it would probably say 
that that was seldom the real moment — just as 
in the natural Life the conscious moment is not 
the real moment. The moment of birth in the 
natural world is not a conscious moment — we 
do not know we are born till long afterward. 
Yet there are men to whom the Origin of the 
New Life in time has been no difficulty. To 
Paul, for instance, Christ seems to have come 
at a definite period of time, the exact moment 
and second of which could have been known. 
And this is certainly, in theory at least, the 
normal Origin of Life, according to the prin- 
ciples of Biology. The line between the living 
and the dead is a sharp line. When the dead 
atoms of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, 
are seized upon by Life, the organism at first 
is very lowly. It possesses few functions. It 
has little beauty. Growth is the work of time. 
But Life is not. That comes in a moment. 
At one moment it was dead ; the next it lived. 
This is conversion, the " passing," as the Bible 
calls it, " from Death unto Life." Those who 
have stood by another's side at the solemn 
hour of this dread possession have been con- 
scious sometimes of an experience whicli words 
are not allowed to utter — a something like the 
sudden snapping of a chain, the waking from 
a dream. 



DEGENERATION. 



I went by Vie field of the slothful, and by the vine- 
yard of the man void of understanding ; and lo, it was 
all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the 
face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken 
down. Then I saw and considered it well; I looked 
upon it and received instruction,''^ — Solomon. 



DEGENERATIOK 

" How shall we escape if we neglect so great salva- 
tion ? " — Hebrews, 

** We have as possibilities either Balance, or Elabora- 
tion, or Degeneration." — E, Bay Lankester. 

In one of his best known books, Mr. Darwin 
brings out a fact which may be illustrated in 
some such way a^s this: Suppose a bird fan- 
cier collects a flock of tame pigeons distin- 
guished by all the infinite ornamentations of 
their race. They are of all kinds, of every 
shade of color, and adorned with every variety 
of marking. He takes them to an uninhabited 
island and allows them to fly off wild into the 
woods. They found a colony there, and after 
the lapse of many years the owner returns to 
the spot. He will find that a remarkable 
change has taken place in the interval. The 
birds, or their descendants rather, have all be- 
come changed into the same color. The black, 
the white and the dun, the striped, the spot- 
ted, and the ringed, are all metamorphosed 
into one — a dark slaty blue. Two plain black 
bands monotonously repeat themselves upon 
the wings of each, and the loins beneath are 
white; but all the variety, all the beautiful 
colors, all the old graces of form it may be, 

109 



110 BEGENERA TlOJSf. 

have disappeared. These improvements were 
the result of care and nurture, of domestica- 
tion, of civihzation ; and now that these influ- 
ences are removed, the birds themselves undo 
the past and lose what they had gained. The 
attempt to elevate the race has been mysteri- 
ously tliwarted. It is as if the original bird, 
the far remote ancestor of all doves, had been 
blue, and these had been compelled by some 
strange law to discard the badges of their 
civilization and conform to the ruder image of 
the first. The natural law by which such a 
change occurs is called The Priyicijole of Re- 
version to Type, 

It is a proof of the universality of this law 
that the same thing will happen with a plant. 
A garden is planted, let us say, with straw- 
herries and roses, and for a number of years 
is left alone. In process of time it Avill run to 
waste. But this does not mean that the 
plants will really waste awa}^, but that they 
will change into something else, and, as it in- 
variably appears, into something worse ; in 
the one case, namely, into the small, wild 
strawberry of the woods, and in the other into 
the primitive dog-rose of the hedges. 

If we neglect a garden plant, then, a natural 
principle of deterioration comes in, and changes 
it into a worse plant. And if we neglect a 
bird, by the same imperious law it Avill be 
gradually changed into an uglier bird. Or if 
we neglect almost any of the domestic ani- 
mals, they will rapidly revert to wild and 
worthless forms again. 



DEGENERATION. Ill 

Now the same thing exactly would happen 
in the case of you or me. Why should Man 
be an exception to any of the laws of Nature? 
Nature knows him simply as an animal — Sub- 
kingdom Yertehrata^ Class Mammalia^ Order 
JBimana, And the law of Reversion to Type 
runs through all creation. If a man neglect 
himself for a few years he will change into 
a worse man and a lower man. If it is his 
body that he neglects, he will deteriorate 
into a wild and bestial savage — like the de- 
humanized men who are discovered sometimes 
upon desert islands. If it is his mind, it will 
degenerate into imbecility and madness — soli- 
tary confinement has the power to unmake 
men's minds and leave them idiots. If he 
neglect his conscience, it will run off into law- 
lessness and vice. Or, lastly, if it is his soul, 
it must inevitably atrophy, drop off in ruin 
and decay. 

We have here, then, a thoroughly natural 
basis for the question before us. If we neglect, 
with this universal principle staring us in the 
face, how shall w^e escape ? If we neglect the 
ordinary means of keeping a garden in order, 
how shall it escape running to weeds and 
waste? Or, if we neglect the opportunities 
ffor cultivating the mind, how shall it escape 
ignorance and feebleness ? So, if we neglect 
the soul, how shall it escape the natural ret- 
rograde movement, the inevitable relapse into 
barrenness and death ? 

It is not necessary, surely, to pause for 
proof that there is such a retrograde principle 



112 DEGENERATION. 

in the being of every man. It is demonstrat* 
ed by facts, and by the analogy of all Nature. 
Three possibilities of life, according to Science, 
are open to all living organisms — Balance, 
Evolution, and Degeneration. The first 
denotes the precarious persistence of a life 
along what looks like a level path, a character 
which seems to hold its own alike against the 
attacks of evil and the appeals of good. It 
implies a set of circumstances so balanced by 
choice of fortune that they neither influence 
for better nor for worse. But except in theory 
this state of equilibrium, normalin the inor- 
ganic kingdom, is really foreign in the world 
of life ; and what seems inertia may be a true 
Evolution unnoticed from its slowness, or 
likelier still a movement of Degeneration subtly 
obliterating as it falls the very traces of its 
former height. From this state of apparent 
Balance, Evolution is the escape in the up- 
ward direction. Degeneration in the lower. 
But Degeneration, rather than Balanqe or 
Elaboration, is the possibility of life embraced 
by the majority of mankind. And the choice 
is determined by man's own nature. The life 
of Balance is difficult. It lies on the veige of 
continual temptation, its perpetual adjust- 
ments become fatiguing, its measured virtue 
is monotonous and uninspiring. More diffi- 
cult still, apparently, is the life of ever upward 
growth. Most men attempt it for a time, but 
growth is slow ; and despair overtakes them 
while the goal is far away. Yet none of these 
reasons fully explains the fact that the alter- 



DEGENERATION. 113 

native which remains is adopted by the ma- 
jority of men. That Degeneration is easy only 
half accounts for it. Why is it easy ? Why 
but that already in each man's very nature 
this principle is supreme? He feels within his 
soul a silent drifting motion impelling him 
downward with irresistible force. Instead of 
aspiring to Conversion to a higher Type he sub- 
mits by a law of his nature to Reversion to a 
lower. This is Degeneration — that principle 
by which the organism, failing to develop itself, 
failing even to keep what it has got, deterio- 
rates, and becomes more and more adapted 
to a degraded form of life. 

All men who know themselves are conscious 
that this tendency, deep-rooted and active, 
exists within their nature. Theologically it is 
described as a gravitation, a bias toward evil. 
The Bible view is that man is conceived in sin 
and shapen in iniquity. And experience tells 
him that he will shape himself into further sin 
and ever-deepening iniquity without the small- 
est effort, without in the least intending it, 
and in the most natural way in the world if 
he simply let his life run. It is on this prin- 
ciple that, completing the conception, the 
wicked are said further in the Bible to be lost. 
They are not really lost as yet, but they are on 
the sure way to it. The bias of their lives is 
in full action. There is no drag on anywhere. 
The natural tendencies are having it all their 
own way ; and although the victims may be 
quite unconscious that all this is going on, it 
is patent to every one who considers even the 
8 



114 DEGENERATION. 

natural bearings of the case that " the end ot 
these thmgs is Death." When we see a man 
fall from the top of a five-story house, we ^ay 
the man is lost. We say that before he has 
fallen a foot; for the same principle that made 
him fall the one foot will undoubtedly make 
him complete the descent by falling other 
eighty or ninety feet. So that he is a dead 
man, or a lost man from the very first. The 
gravitation of sin in a human soul acts pre- 
cisely in the same way. Gradually, with 
gathering momentum it sinks a man further 
and further from God and righteousness, and 
lands him, by the sheer action of a natural 
law, in the hell of a neglected life. 

But the lesson is not less clear from analogy. 
Apart even from the law of Degeneration, 
apart from Reversion to Type, there is in every 
living organism a law of Death. We are wont 
to imagine that Kature is full of Life. In 
reality it is full of Death. One cannot say it 
is natural for a plant to live. Examine its 
nature fully, and you have to admit that its 
natural tendency is to die. It is kept from 
dying by a mere temporary endowment, which 
gives it an ephemeral dominion over the ele- 
ments — gives it power to utilize for a brief 
span the rain, the sunshine, and the air. With- 
draw this temporary endowment for a moment 
and its true nature is revealed. Instead of 
overcoming Nature it is overcome. The very 
things which appeared to minister to its growth 
and beauty now turn against it and make it 
decay and die. The sun which warmed it, 



JDEGENERATIOJSr, 115 

withers it ; the air and rain which nourished 
it, rot it. It is the very forces which we asso- 
ciate with life which, when their true nature 
appears, are discovered to be really the min- 
isters of death. 

This law, which is true for the whole plant- 
world, is also valid for the animal and for man. 
Air is not life, but corruption — so literally cor- 
ruption that the only way to keep out corrup- 
tion, when life has ebbed, is to keep out air. 
Life is merely a temporary suspension of these 
destructive powers ; and this is truly one of 
the most accurate definitions of life we have 
yet received^-" the sum total of the functions 
which resist death." 

Spiritual life, in like manner, is the sum 
total of the functions which resist sin. The 
soul's atmosphere is the daily trial, circum- 
stance, and temptation of the world. And as 
it is life alone which gives the plant power to 
utilize the elements, and as, without it, they 
utilize it, so it is the spiritual life alone which 
gives the soul power to utilize temptation and 
trial ; and without it they destroy the soul. 
How shall we escape if we refuse to exercise 
these functions — in other words, if we neglect? 

This destroying process, observe, goes on 
quite independently of God's judgment on sin. 
God's judgment on sin is another and a more 
awful fact of which this may be a part. But 
it is a distinct fact by itself, which we can hold 
and examine separately, that on purely natural 
principles the soul that is left to itself un- 
watched, uncultivated, unredeemed, must fall 



116 DEGENERATION, 

away into death by its own nature. The soul 
that sinneth "it shall die." It shall die, not 
necessarily because God passes sentence of 
death upon it, but because it cannot lielp dying. 
It has neglected " the functions which resist 
death," and has always been dying. The 
punishment is in its very nature, and the sen- 
tence is being gradually carried out all along 
the path of life by ordinary processes which 
enforce the verdict with the appalling faithful- 
ness of law. 

There is an affectation that religious truths 
lie beyond the sphere of the comprehension 
which serves men in ordinary things. This 
question at least must be an exception. It lies 
as near the natural as the spiritual. If it 
makes no impression on a man to know that 
God will visit his iniquities upon him, he can- 
not blind himself to the fact that Nature will. 
Do we not all know what it is to be punished 
by Nature for disobeying her ? We have 
looked round the wards of a hospital, a prison, 
or a madhouse, and seen there Nature at work 
squaring her accounts with sin. And we knew 
as we looked that if no Judge sat on the throne 
of heaven at all there was a Judgment there, 
where an inexorable Nature was crying aloud 
for justice, and carrying out her heavy sen- 
tences for violated laws. 

When God gave Nature the law into her 
own hands in this way. He seems to have 
given her two rules upon which her sentences 
were to be based. The one is formally enun- 
ciated in this sentence, " Whatsoever a man 



BEGENERATION, 117 

SOWETH THAT SHALL HE ALSO KEAP." The 

other is informally expressed in this, " If ws 

NEGLECT HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE?'^ 

The first is the positive law, and deals with 
sins of commission. The other, which we are 
now discussing, is the negative, and deals with 
sins of omission. It does not say anything 
about sowing, but about not sowing. It takes 
up the case of souls which are lying fallow. 
It does not say, if we sow corruption we shall 
reap corruption. Perhaps we would not be so 
unwise, so regardless of ourselves, of public 
opinion, as to sow corruption. It does not say, 
if we sow tares we shall reap tares. We might 
never do anything so foolish as sow tares. 
But if we sow nothing, it says, we shall reap 
nothing. If we put nothing into the field, we 
shall take nothing out. If we neglect to cul- 
tivate in summer, how shall we escape starv- 
ing in winter? 

Now the Bible raises this question, but does 
not answer it — because it is too obvious to need 
answering. How shall we escape if we neg- 
lect? The answer is, we cannot. In the 
nature of things we cannot. We cannot escape 
any more than a man can escape drowning 
who falls into the sea and has neglected to 
learn to swim. In the nature of things he 
cannot escape — nor can he escape who has 
neglected the great salvation. 

Now why should such fatal consequences 
follow a simple process like neglect? The 
popular impression is that a man, to be what 
is called lost, must be an open and notorious 



118 DEGENERATION. 

sinner. He must be one who has abandoned 
all that is good and pure in life, and sown to 
the flesh with all his might and main. But 
this p]-inciple goes further. It says simply, 
'' If we neglect." ^ny one may see the reason 
why a notoriously wicked person should not 
escape ; but why should not all the rest of us 
escape? What is to hinder people who are 
not notoriousLy wicked escaping — people who 
never sowed anything in particular? Why 
is it such a sin to sow nothing in particularly 

There must be some hidden and vital rehi- 
tion between these three words, Salvntion, 
Neglect, and Escape — some reasonable, es- 
sential, and indissoluble connection. Why 
are these words so linked together as to weight 
this clause with all the authority and solenniity 
of a sentence of death ? 

The explanation has partly been given 
already. It lies still further, however, in the 
meaning of the word Salvation. And this, of 
course, is not at all Salvation in the ordinary 
sense of forgiveness of sin. This is one great 
meaning of Salvation, the first and the greatest. 
But this is spoken to people who are supposed 
to have had this. It is the broader word, 
therefore, and includes not only forgiveness of 
sin but salvation or deliverance from the down- 
ward bias of the soul. It takes in that whole 
process of 'rescue from the power of sin and 
selfishness that should be going on from day 
to day in every human life. We have seen 
that tiiere is a natural principle in man lower- 
ing him, deadening him, pulling him down by 



DEGENERA TIOJST. 119 

inches to the mere animal plane, blinding 
reason, searing conscience, paralyzing will. 
This is the active destroying principle, or Sin. 
Now to counteract this, God has discovered to 
us another principle which will stop this drift- 
ing process in the soul, steer it round, and make 
it drift the other way. This is the active sav- 
ing principle, or Salvation. If a man find the 
first of these powers furiously at work within 
him, dragging his whole life downward to de- 
struction, there is only one way to escape his 
fate — to take resolute hold of the upward 
power, and be borne by it to the opposite goal. 
And as this second power is the only one in 
the universe which has the slightest real effect 
upon the first, how shall a man escape if he 
neglect it ? To neglect it is to cut off the only 
possible chance of escape. In declining this 
he is simply abandoning himself with his eyes 
open to that other and terrible energy which 
is already there, and which, in the natural 
course of things, is bearing him every moment 
further and further from escape. 

From the very nature of Salvation, there- 
fore, it is plain that the only thing necessary 
to make it of no effect is neglect. Hence the 
Bible could not fail to lay strong emplmsis on 
a word so vital. It was not necessary for it 
to say, how shall we escape if we trample 
upon the great salvation, or doubt, or despise, 
or reject it. A man who has been poisoned 
only need neglect the antidote and he will die. 
It makes no difference whether he dashes it 
ou the ground, or pours it out of the window, 



1 20 DEGENERA TION. 

or sets it down by his bedside, and stares at it 
all the time he is dying. He will die just the 
same, whether he destroys it in a passion, or 
coolly refuses to have anythiing to do with it. 
And as a matter of fact probably most deaths, 
spiritually, are gradual dissolutions of the 
last class rather than rash suicides of the first. 

This, then, is the effect of neglecting salva- 
tion from the side of salvation itself; and the 
conclusion is that from the very nature of 
salvation escape is out of the question. Salva- 
tion is a definite process. If a man refuse to 
submit himself to that process, clearly he can- 
not have the benefits of it. As many as re- 
ceived Ilira to them gave He power to become 
the sons of God, He does not avail himself of 
this power. It may be mere carelessness or 
apathy. Nevertheless the neglect is fatal. 
lie cannot escape because he will not. 

Turn now to another aspect of the case — to 
the effect upon the soul itself. Neglect does 
more for the soul than make it miss salvation. 
It despoils it of its capacity for salvation. 
Degeneration in the spiritual sphere involves 
primarily the impairing of the faculties of 
salvation and ultimately the loss of them. It 
really* means that the very soul itself becomes 
piecemeal destroyed until the very capacity for 
God and righteousness is gone. 

The soul, in its highest sense, is a vast 
capacity for God. It is like a curious chamber 
added on to being, and somehow involving 
being, a chamber with elastic and contractile 
walls, which can be expanded, with God as its 



DEGENERATION. 121 

guest, iilimitably, but which without God 
shrinks and shrivels until every vestige of the 
Divine is gone, and God's image is left with- 
out God's Spirit. One cannot call what is left 
a soul; it is a shrunken, useless organ, a 
capacity sentenced to death by disuse, which 
droops as a withered hand by the side, and 
cumbers nature like a rotted branch. Nature 
has her revenge upon neglect as well as upon, 
extravagance. Misuse, with her, is as mortal 
a sin as abuse. 

There are certain burrowing animals — the 
mole for instance — which have taken to spend- 
ing their lives beneath the surface of the ground. 
And Nature has taken her revenge upon them 
in a thoroughly natural way — she has closed up 
their eyes. If they mean to live in darkness, 
she argues, eyes are obviously a superfluous 
function. By neglecting them these animals 
made it clear they do not want them. And 
as one of Nature's fixed principles is that noth- 
ing shall exist in vain, the eyes are presently 
taken away, or reduced to a rudimentary 
state. There are fishes also which have had 
to pay the same terrible forfeit for having 
made their abode in dark caverns where eyes 
can never be required. And in exactly the 
same way the spiritual eye must die and lose 
its power by purely natural law if the soul 
choose to walk in darkness rather than in light. 

This is the meaning of the favorite paradox 
of Christ, "From him that hath not shall be 
taken away even that which he hath ; " " take 
therefore the talent from him." The religious 



122 DEGENERATION. 

faculty is a talent, the most splendid and sacred 
talent we possess. Yet it is subject to the nat- 
ural conditions and laws. If any man take 
his talent and hide it in a napkin, although it 
is doing him neither harm nor good apparently, 
God will not allow him to have it. Although 
it is lying there rolled up in the darkness, not 
conspicuously affecting any one, still God will 
not allow him to keep it. lie will not allow him 
to keep it any more than Nature would allow 
the fish to keep their eyes. Therefore, He says, 
" take the talent from him." And Nature does it. 
This man's crime was simply neglect — " thou 
wicked and slothful servant." It was a wasted 
life — a life which failed in the holy steward- 
ship of itself. Such a life is a peril to all who 
cross its path. Degeneration compasses De- 
generation. It is only a character which is 
itself developing that can aid the Evolution of 
the world and so fulfil the end of life. For 
this high usury each of our lives, however smrJl 
may seem our capital, was given us by God. 
And it is just the men whose capital seems 
small who need to choose the best investments. 
It is significant that it w^s the man who had 
only one talent who ^vas guilty of neglecting 
it. Men with ten talents, men of large gifts 
and burning energies, either direct their powers 
nobly and usefully, or misdirect them irretriev- 
p-bly. It is those who belong to the rank and 
file of life who need this warning most. Others 
have an abundant store and sow to the spirit or 
the flesh with a lavish hand. But we, with our 
small gift, what boots our sowing ? Our temp- 



DEGENERATION. 123 

tation as ordinary men is to neglect to sow at 
all. The interest on our talent would be so small 
that we excuse ourselves with the reflection 
that it is not worthwhile. 

It is no objection to all this to say that we 
are unconscious of this neglect or misdirection 
of our powers. That is the darkest feature in 
the case. If there were uneasiness there might 
be hope. If there were, somewhere about our 
soul, a something which was not gone to sleep 
like all the rest ; if there were a contending 
force anywhere ; if we would let even that 
work instead of neglecting it, it would gain 
strength from hour to hour, and waken up one 
at a time each torpid and dishonored faculty 
till our whole nature becomes alive with striv- 
ings against self, and every avenue was open 
wide for God. But the apathy, the numbness 
of the soul, what can be said of such a symptom 
but that it means the creeping on of death ? 
There are accidents in which the victims feel 
no pain. They are well and strong they think. 
But they are dying. And if you ask the sur- 
geon by their side what makes him give this 
verdict, he will say it is this numbness over 
the frame which tells how some of the parts 
have lost already the very capacity for life. 

Nor is it the least tragic accompaniment of 
this process that its effect may even be concealed 
from others. The soul undergoing Degenera- 
tion, surely by some arrangement with Temp- 
tation planned in the uttermost hell, possesses 
the power of absolute secrecy. When all with- 
in is festering decay and rottenness, a Judas, 



124 DEGENERATION, 

without anomaly, may kiss his Loid. This 
invisible consumption, like its fell analogue 
in the natural world, may even keep its victim 
beautiful while slowly slaying it. When one 
examines the little Crustacea which have in- 
habited for centuries the lakes of the Mammoth 
Cave of Kentucky, one is at first astonished to 
find these animals apparently endowed with 
perfect eyes. The pallor of the head is broken 
by two black pigment specks, conspicuous 
indeed as the only bits of color on the whole 
blanched body ; and these, even to the casual 
observer, certainly represent well-defined or- 
gans of vision. But what do they with eyes 
in these Stygian waters? There reigns an 
everlasting night. Is the law for once at fault ? 
A^wift incision with the scalpel, a glance with 
a lens, and their secret is betrayed. The eyes 
are a mocker3\ Externally they are oi'gans of 
vision — the front of the eye is perfect ; behind, 
there is nothing but a mass of ruins. The optic 
nerve is a shrunken, atrophied and insensate 
thread. These animals have organs of vision, 
and yet they have no vision. They have eyes, 
but they see not. 

Exactly what Christ said of men : They had 
eyes, but no vision. And the reason is the 
same. It is the simplest problem of natural 
history. The Crustacea of the Mammoth Cave 
have chosen to abide in darkness. Therefore 
they have become fitted for it. By refusing to 
see they have waived the right to see. And 
Nature has grimly humored them. Nature had 
to do it by her very constitution. It is her de- 



DEGENEIiA TION. 125 

fence against waste that decay of faculty should 
iinniediately follow disuse of function. He that 
hath ears to heaiyhe whose ears have not de- 
generated, let him hear. 

Men tell us sometimes there is no such thing 
as an atlieist. There must he. There are some 
men to whom it is true that tliere is no God. 
They cannot see Godhecause tliey have no eye. 
They have only an ahortive organ, atrophied 
by neglect. 

All this, it is commonplace again to insist, is 
not the effect of neglect when we die, hut while 
we live. The proet^ss is in full career and 
operation now. It is useless projecting con- 
sequences into the future when tlie effects may 
he measured now. We are always practising 
these little deceptions upon ourselves, post- 
poning the consequences of our misdeeds 
as if they were to culminate some other 
day ahout the time of death. It makes 
us sin with a lighter liand to run an account 
with retribution, as it were, and delay the 
reckoning time with (Jod. J>ut every day is a 
reckoning day. Every soul is a I^ook of Judg- 
n^ent, arul Nature, as a recording angel, marks 
tlieir every sin. As all will be judged by the 
great Judge some day, all are judged by Nature 
now. The sin of yesterday, as part of its 
penalty, has the sin of to-day. All follow us 
in silent retribution on our past, and go with 
us to the gi'ave. We cannot cheat Nature. 
No sleigh t;-of-heart can rob r(^ligion of a 
presoit^ the innnortal nature of a tuyto. The 
poet sings — 



126 DEGENERATION. 

*' I looked behind to find my past, 
And lo, it had gone before." 

But no, not all. The unforgiven sins are not 
away in keeping somewhere to be let loose up- 
on us when we die ; they are here within us, 
now. To-day brings the resurrection of their 
past, to-morrow of to-day. And the powers 
of sin, to the exact strength that we hnve 
developed them, nearing their dreadful culmina- 
tion with every breath we draw, are here, with- 
in us, now. The souls of some men are al- 
ready honeycombed through and through with 
the eternal consequences of neglect, so that 
taking the natural and rational view of their 
c^seJicstnotVj it is simply inconceivable that 
there is any escsi-pe just novj. What a fearful 
thing it is to fall into the hands of the living 
God ! A fearful thing even if, as the philoso- 
pher tells us, '' the hands of the Living God are 
the Laws of Xature." 

Whatever hopes of a " heaven " a neglected 
soul pay have, can be shown to be an ignorant 
and delusive dream. Haw is the soul to escape 
to heaven if it has neglected for a lifetime tlie 
means of escape from the world and self ? 
And where is the capacity for heaven to come 
from if it be not developed on earth ? Where, 
indeed, is even the smallest spiritual apprecia- 
tion of God and heaven to come from when so 
little of spirituality has ever been known or 
manifested here ? If every Godward aspira- 
tion of the soul has been allowed to become 
extinct, and every inlet that was open to 
heaven to be choked, and every talent for 



DEGENERATION. 127 

religious love and trust to have been persist- 
ently neglected and ignored, where are the 
faculties to come from that would even find 
the faintest relish in such things as God and 
heaven gives ? 

These three words, Salvation, Escape, and 
Neglect, then, are not casually, but organically 
and necessarily connected. Their doctrine is 
scientific, not arbitrary. Escape means noth- 
ing more than the gradual emergence of the 
•higher being from the lower, and nothing less. 
It means the gradual putting oft' of all that can- 
not enter the higher state, or heaven, and, 
simultaneously the putting on of Christ. It 
involves the slow completing of the soul and 
the development of the capacity for God. 

Should any one object that from this scien- 
tific standpoint the opposite of salvation is 
annihilation, the answer is at hand. From this 
standpoint there is no such word. 

If, then, escape is to be open to us, it is not 
to come to us somehow, vaguely. We are not 
to hope for anything startling or mysterious. 
It is a definite opening along certain lines which 
are definitely marked by God, which begin at 
the Cross of Christ, and lead direct to Him. 
Each man in the silence of his own soul must 
work out this salvation for himself with fear 
and trembling — with fear, realizing the mo- 
mentous issues of his task ; with trembling, 
lest before the tardy work be done the voice 
of Death should summon him to stop. 

What these lines are may, in closing, be in- 
dicated in a word. The true problem of the 



128 DEGENERATION. 

spiritual life may be said to be, do the opposite 
of Neglect. Whatever this is, do it and you shall 
escape. It will just mean that you are so to 
cultivate the soul that all its powers will open 
out to God, and in beholding God be drawn away 
from sin. The idea really is to develop among 
the ruins of the old a new " creature " — a new 
creature which, while the old is suffering De- 
generation from Neglect, is gradually to unfold, 
to escape away and develop on spiritual lines to 
spiritual beauty and strength. And as our 
conception of spiritual being must be taken 
simply from natural being, our ideas of the lives 
along which the new religious nature is to run 
must be borrowed from the known lines of the 
old. 

There is, for example, a Sense of Sight in the 
religious nature. Neglect this, leave it un- 
developed, and you never miss it. You simply 
see nothing. But develop it and you see 
God. And the line along which to develop it 
is known to us. Become pure in heart. The 
pure in heart shall see God. Here, th.en, is one 
opening for soul-culture — the avenue through 
purity of heart to the spiritual seeing of God. 

Then there is a Sense of Sound. Neglect 
this, leave it undeveloped, and you never miss 
it. You simply hear nothing. Develop it, and 
you hear God. And the line along which to 
develop it is known to us. Obey Christ. Be- 
come one of Christ's flock. " Tlie sheep hear 
His voice, and He calleth them by name." 
Here, then, is another opportunity for the cult- 
ure of the soul — a gateway through the Shep- 
herd's fold to hear the Shepherd's voice. 



DEGENERATION. 129 

And there is a Sense of Touch to be ac- 
quired—such a sense as the woman had who 
touched the hem of Christ's garment, that 
wonderful electric touch called faith, which 
moves the very heart of God. 

And there is Sense of Taste — a spiritual 
hunger after God ; a something within which 
tastes and sees that lie is good. And there 
is the Talent for Inspiration. ISTeglect that, 
and all tlie scenery of the spiritual world is 
flat and frozen. But cultivate it, and it pene- 
trates the whole soul with sacred fire, and illu- 
minates creation with God. And last of all 
there is the great capacity for Love, even for 
the love of God — the expanding cr^pacity for 
feeling more and more its height and depth, its 
length and breadth. Till that is felt no man 
can really understand that word, " so great 
salvation," for what is its measure but that 
other '' so " of Christ — God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son ? Yerily, 
how shall we escape if we neglect that 



9 1 



1 For the scientific basis of this spiritual law the follow- 
ing works may be consulted : — 

" The Origin of Species." By Charles Darwin, F.R.S. 
London : John Murray. 1872. 

" Degeneration." By E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. 
London : Macmillan. 1880. 

"Der Ursprung der Wirbelthiere unddas Princip des 
Functions- Wechsels." Dr. A. Dorhn. Leipzig : 1875. 

'' Lessons from Xature." By St. George Mivart, 
F.R.S. London : John Murray. 1876. 

" The Natural Conditions of Existence as they Affect 
Animal Life." Karl Semper. London : C. Kegan Paul 
& Co. 1881. 
9 



GROWTH. 



*' Is not the evidence of Ease on the very front of 
all the greatest works in existence ? Do they not say 
plainly to us, not * there has been a great effort here,' 
but ' there has been a great power here ' ? It is not 
the weariness of mortality but the strength of divin- 
ity, which we have to recognize in all mighty things, 
and that is just what we now never recognize, but 
think that we are to do great things by lielp of iron 
bars and perspiration ; alas ! we shall do nothing that 
way, but lose some pounds of our own weight." 

RUSKIN, 



GROWTH. 

*' Consider the lilies of the field how they grow." — 
The Sermon on the Mount. 

'^Nunquam aliud natura, aliud sapientia dicit." — 
Juvenal, 

What gives the peculiar point to this object- 
lesson from the Ups of Jesus is, that He not 
only made the illustration, but made the lilies. 
It is like an inventor describing his own ma- 
chine. He made the lilies and He made me — 
both on the same broad principle. Both to- 
gether, man and flower, He planted deep in 
the Providence of God; but as men are dull at 
studying themselves He points to this com- 
panion-phenomenon to teach us how to live a 
free and natural life, a life which God will un- 
fold for us, without our anxiety, as He unfolds 
the flower. For Christ's words are not a 
general appeal to consider nature. Men are 
not to consider the lilies simply to admire 
their beauty, to dream over the delicate 
strength and grace of stem and leaf. The 
point they were to consider Avas how they grew 
— how without anxiety or care the flower woke 
into loveliness, how without weaving these 
leaves were woven, how without toiling these 
complex tissues spun themselves, and how 

133 



134 GROWTH. 

without any effort or friction the whole slowly 
came ready-made from the loom of God in its 
more than Solomon-like glory. " So," He says, 
making the application beyond dispute, " you 
care-worn, anxious men must grow. You, too, 
need take no thought for yoar life, what ye 
shall eat or what ye shall drink or what ye 
shall put on. For if God so clothe the grass of 
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is 
cast into the oven, shall He not much more 
clothe you, O ye of little faith ? " 

This nature-lesson was a great novelty in 
its day ; but all men now who have even a 
" little faith " have learned this Christian secret 
of a composed life. Apart even from the 
parable of the lily, the failures of the past 
have taught most of us the folly of disquieting 
ourselves in vain, and we have given up the 
idea that by taking thought we can add a cubit 
to our stature. 

But no sooner has our life settled down to 
this calm trust in God than a new and graver 
anxiety begins. This time it is not for the 
body we are in travail, but for the soul. For 
the temporal life we have considered the lilies, 
but how is the spiritual life to grow ? How 
are we to become better men ? How are we to 
grow in grace? By what thought shall we 
add the cubits to the spiritual stature and 
reach the fulness of the Perfect Man ? And 
because we know ill how to do this, the old 
anxiety comes back again and our inner life is 
once more an agony of conflict and remorse. 
After all, we have but transferred our anxious 



GBOWTTI. 135 

thoughts from the body to the soul. Our 
efforts after Christian growth seera only a 
succession of failures, and instead of rising 
into the beauty of holiness our life is a daily 
heartbreak and humiliation. 

JSTow the reason of this is very plain. We 
have forgotten the parable of the lily. Violent 
efforts to grow are right in earnestness, but 
wholly wrong in principle. There is but one 
principle of growth both for the natural and 
spiritual, for animal and plant, for body and 
soul. For all growth is an organic thing. And 
the principle of growing in grace is once more 
this, " Consider the lilies hoio they growP 

In seeking to extend the analogy from the 
hody to the soul there are two things about 
the lilies' growth, two characteristics of all 
growth, on which one must fix attention. 
These are^ — 

First, Spontaneousness. 

Second, Mysteriousness. 

I. Spontaneousness. There are three lines 
^long which one may seek for evidence of the 
spontaneousness of growth. The first is Sci- 
ence. And the argument here could not be 
summed up better than in the words of Jesus. 
The lilies grow. He says, of themselves ; they 
toil not, neither do they spin. They grow, that 
is, automatically, spontaneously, without try- 
ing, without fretting, without thinking. Ap- 
plied in any direction, to plant, to animal, to 
the body or to the soul this law holds. A boy 
grows, for example, without trying. One or 
two simple conditions are fulfilled, and the 



136 GROWTH. 

growth goes on. He thinks probably as Httle 
about the condition as about the result; he 
fulfils the conditions by habit, the result fol- 
lows by nature. Both processes go steadily 
on from year to year apart from himself and 
all but in spite of himself. One Avould never 
think of telling a boy to grow. A doctor has 
no prescription for growth. He can tell me how 
growth may be stunted or impaired, but the 
process itself is recognized as beyond control 
— one of the few, and therefore very significant, 
things which Nature keeps in her own hands. 
No physician of souls, in like manner, has any 
prescription for spiritual growth. It is the 
question he is most often asked and most often 
answers wrongly. He may prescribe more 
earnestness, more prayer, more self-denial, or 
more Christian work. These are prescriptions 
for something, but not for growth. Not that 
they may not encourage growth ; but the soul 
grows as the lily grows, without trying, with- 
out fretting, without ever thinking. Manuals 
of devotion, with complicated rules for get- 
ting on in the Christian life, would do well 
sometimes to return to the simplicity of nat- 
ure; and earnest souls who are attempting 
sanctification by struggle instead of sanctifica- 
tion by faith might be spared much humilia- 
tion by learning the botany of the Sermon on 
the Mount. There can indeed be no other 
principle of growth than this. It is a vital 
act. And to try to make a thing grow is as 
absurd as to help the tide to come in or the 
sun rise. 



GROWTH, 137 

Another argument for the spontaneousness of 
growth is universal experience. A boy not 
only grows without trying, but he cannot 
grow if he tries. No man by taking thought 
has ever added a cubit to his stature ; nor has 
any man by mere working at his soul ever 
approached nearer to the stature of the Lord 
Jesus. The stature of the Lord Jesus was not 
itself reached by work, and he who thinks to 
approach its mystical height by anxious effort is 
really receding from it. Christ's life unfolded 
itself from a divine germ, planted centrally in 
His nature, which grew as naturally as a 
flower from a bud. This flower may be imi- 
tated ; but one can always tell an artificial 
flower. The human form may be copied in 
wax, yet somehow one never fails to detect the 
difference. And this precisely is the difference 
between a native growth of Christian principle 
and the moral copy of it. The one is natural, 
the other mechanical. The one is a growth, 
the other an accretion. Now this, according to 
modern biology, is the fundamental distinction 
between the living and the not living, between 
an organism and a crystal. The living organ- 
ism grows, the dead crystal increases. The 
first grows vitally from within, the last adds 
new particles from the outside. The whole 
difference between the Christian and the moral- 
ist lies here. The Christian works from the 
centre, the moralist from the circumference. 
The one is an organism, in the centre of which 
is planted by the living God a living germ. 
The other is a crystal, very beautiful it may 



138 GROWTH, 

be ; but only a crystal — it wants the vital prin- 
ciple of growth. 

And one sees here also, what is sometimes 
very difficult to see, why salvation in the first 
instance is never connected directly with mo- 
ralit}^ The reason is not that salvation does 
not demand morality, but that it demands so 
much of it that the moralist can never reach 
up to it. The end of Salvation is perfection, 
the Christlike mind, character and life. 
Morality is on the way to this perfection ; it 
may go a considerable distance towards it, iDut 
it can never reach it. Only Life can do that. 
It requires something with enormous power of 
movement, of growth, of overcoming obstacles, 
to attain the perfect. Therefore the man who 
has within himself this great formative agent, 
Life, is nearer the end than the man who has 
morality alone. The latter can never reach 
perfection ; the former must. For the Life 
must develop out according to its type ; and 
being a germ of the Christ-life, it must unfold 
into a Christ, Morality, at the utmost, only 
develops the character in one or two direc- 
tions. It may perfect a single virtue here and 
there, but it cannot perfect all. And espe- 
cially it fails always to give that rounded har- 
mony of parts, that perfect tune to the whole 
orchestra, which is the mark characteristic of 
life. Perfect life is not merely the possession 
of perfect functions, but of perfect functions 
perfectly adjusted to each other and all con- 
spiring to a single result, the perfect working 
of the whole organism. It is not said that the 



GROWTH, 139 

character will develop, in all its fulness in 
this life. That were a time too short for an 
Evolution so magnificent. In this world only 
the cornless ear is seen; sometimes onl}^ the 
small yet still prophetic blade. The sneer at 
the godly man for his imperfections is ill- 
judged. A blade is a small thing. At first it 
grows very near the earth. It is often soiled 
and crushed and downtrodden. But it is a 
living thing. That great dead stone beside it 
is more imposing ; only it will never be any- 
thing else than a stone. ' But this small blade 
— it doth not yet appeal- ichat it sliall he. 

Seeing now that Growth can only be synony- 
mous with a living automatic process, it is all 
but superfluous to seek a third line of argu- 
ment from Scripture. Growth there is always 
described in the language of physiology. The 
regenerate soul is a new creature. The Chris- 
tian is a new man in Christ Jesus. He adds 
the cubits to his stature just as the old man 
does. He is rooted and built up in Christ ; he 
abides in the vine, and so abiding, not toiling 
or spinning, brings forth fruit. The Chris- 
tian in short, like the poet, is born not made; 
and the fruits of his character are not manu- 
factured things but living things, things which 
have grown from the secret germ, the fruits of 
the living Spirit. They are not the produce of 
this climate, but exotics from a sunnier land. 

II. But, secondly, besides the Spontaneous- 
ness there is this other great characteristic of 
Growth — Mysteriousness. Upon this quality 
depends the fact, i^robably, that so few men 



140 GBOWTH. 

ever fathom its real character. We are most 
unspiritual always in dealing with the simplest 
spiritual things. A lil}^ grows mysteriously, 
pushing up its solid weight of stem and leaf in 
the teeth of gravity. Shaped into beauty by 
secret and invisible fingers, the flower develops 
we know not how. But we do not wonder at 
it. Every day the thhig is done; it isXature, 
it is God. We are spiritual enough at least 
to understand that. J3ut wlien the soul rises 
slowly above the world, pushhigupits delicate 
virtues in the teeth of sin, shaping itself 
mysteriously into the image of Christ, we deny 
that the power is not of man. A strong will, 
we say, a high ideal, the reward of virtue, 
Christian influence, — these will account for 
it. Spiritual character is merely the product 
of anxious work, self-command, and self- 
denial. We allow, that is to say, a miracle to 
the lily, but none to the man. The lily may 
grow; the man must fret and toil and spin. 

Now grant for a moment that by harcl work 
and self-restraint a man may attain to a very 
high character. It is not denied that this can be 
done. But what is denied is that this is growth, 
and that this process is Christianity. The fact 
that you can account for it proves that it is not 
growth. For growth is mysterious ; the pecu- 
liarity of it is that you cannot account for it. 
Mysteriousness, as Mozley has well observed, 
is "the test of spiritual birth." And this was 
Christ's test. " The wind bloweth where it 
listeth. Thou hearest the sound tliereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it 



GROWTH. 141 

goeth, so is every one that is horn of the Sjnrit,''^ 
The test of spirituality is that you cannot tell 
whence it cometh or whither it goeth. If you 
can tell, if you can account for it on philosophi- 
cal principles, on the doctrine of influence, on 
strength of will, on a favorable environment, it 
is not growth. It may be so far a success, it 
may be a perfectly honest, even remarkable, 
and praiseworthy imitation, but it is not the 
real thing. The fruits are wax, the flowers 
artiflcial — you can tell whence it cometh and 
whither it goeth. 

The conclusion is, then, that the Christian 
is a unique phenomenon. You cannot account 
for him. And if you could he would not be a 
Christian. Mozley has drawn the two char- 
acters for us in graphic words : " Take an 
ordinary man of the world — what he thinks 
and what he does, his whole standard of duty 
is taken from the society in which he lives. 
It is a borrowed standard : he is as good as 
other people are; he does, in the Avay of duty, 
what is generally considered proper and be- 
coming among those with whom his lot is 
thrown. He reflects established opinion on 
such points. He follows its lead. His aims 
and objects in life again are taken from the 
world around him, and from its dictation. 
What it considers honorable, worth having, 
advantageous and good, he thinks so too and 
pursues it. His motives all come from a vis- 
ible quarter. It would be absurd to say that 
there is any mystery in such a character as 
this, because it is formed from a known external 



142 GROWTH, 

influence — the influence of social opinion and 
the voice of the world. ' Whence such a char- 
acter cometh' we see; we venture to say that 
the source and origin of it is open and 
palpable, and we kuow it just as we know the 
pl>ysical causes of many common facts." 

Then there is the other. " There is a cei'tain 
char,acter and disposition of iniiid of winch it 
is'true to say that Hhou canst not tell whence 
it Cometh or whither it goeth.' . . . TJ^ere 
afi^e those who stand out from n.mong tlie crowd, 
which reflects merely the atmospliere of feel- 
ing and standard of society around it, with an 
impress upon them which bespeaks a lieavenly 
birni. . . . Now, when we see one of those 
characters, it is a question which we ask our- 
selves, How has the person become possessed 
of it? Has he caught it from society around 
him? That cannot be, because it is Avholly 
different from that of the world arouud him. 
Has he caught it from the inoculation of crowds 
and masses, as the mere religious zealot catches 
his character? That cannot be either, for the 
type is altogether different from tbat which 
masses of men, under enthusiastic impulses, 
exhibit. There is nothing gregarious in this 
character ; it is the individual's own ; it is not 
borrowed, it is not a reflection of any fashion 
or tone of the Avorld outside; it rises up from 
some fount within, and it is a creation of which 
the text says, We know not whence it cometh." ^ 

Now we have all met these two characters 

^ University Sermons, pp. 234-241. 



GROWTH. 143 

— the one eminently respectable, upright, virt- 
uous, a trifle cold perhaps, and generally, when 
critically examined, revealing somehow the 
mark of the tool; the other with God's breath 
still upon it, an inspiration ; not more virtuous, 
but differently virtuous; not more humble, 
but different, wearing the meek and quiet 
spirit artlessly as to the manner born. The 
other-worldliness of such a character is the 
thing that strikes you ; you are not prepared 
for what it will do or say or become next, for 
it moves from a far-off centre, and in spite of 
its transparency and sweetness, that presence 
fills you always with awe. A nnan nev^' feels 
the discord of his own life, never hears the' jar of 
the machinery by which he tries to manufact- 
ure his ow^n good points, till he has stood in 
the stillness of such a presence. Then he dis- 
cerns the difference between growth and work. 
lie has considered the lilies, how they grow. 

We have now seen that spiritual growth is a 
process maintained and secured by a sponta- 
neous and mysterious inward principle. It is a 
spontaneous principle even in its origin, for 
it bloweth where it listeth ; mysterious in its 
operation, for we can never tell whence it 
Cometh ; obscure in its destination, for we can- 
not tell whence it goeth. The whole process 
therefore transcends us ; we do not w^ork, we 
are taken in hand — " it is God which worketh 
in us, both to will and to do of His good pleas- 
ure." We do not plan — we are ^S3reated in 
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath 
before ordained that we should walk in them." 



144 GROWTB. 

There may be an obvious objection to all 
this. It takes away all conflict from the Chris- 
tian life ? It makes man, does it not, mere clay 
in the hands of the potter ? It crushes the old 
character to make a new one, and destroys 
man's responsibility for his own soul ? 

Now we are not concerned here in once more 
striking the time-honored " balance between 
faith and works.'- We are considering how 
lilies grow% and in a specific connection, 
namely, to discover the attitude of mind which 
the Christian should preserve regarding his 
spiritual growth. That attitude, primarily, is 
to be free from care. We are not lodging a 
plea for inactivity of the spiritual energies, but 
for the tranquillity of the spiritual mind. 
Christ's protest is not against work, but 
against anxious thought; and rather, there- 
fore, than complement the lesson by showing 
tlie other side, w^e take the risk of still further 
extending the plea in the original direction. 

What is the relation, to recur again to anal- 
ogy, between growth and work in a boy ? Con- 
sciously, there is no relation at all. The boy 
never thinks of connecting his work with his 
grow^th. Work in fact is one thing and growth 
another, and it is so in the spiritual life. If it 
be asked therefore. Is the Christian wrong in 
these ceaseless and agonizing efforts after 
growth? the answer is. Yes, he is quite wrong, 
or at least, he is quite mistaken. When a boy 
takes a meal or denies himself indigestible 
things, he does not say, "All this will minister 
to my growth"; or when he runs a race he 



GROWTH. 145 

does not say, " This will lielp the next cubit of 
my stature." It may or it may not be true that 
these things will help his stature, but, if he 
thinks of this, his idea of growth is morbid. 
And this is the point we are dealing with. His 
anxiety here is altogether irrelevant and super- 
fluous. Nature is far more bountiful than we 
think. When she gives us energy she asks 
none of it back to expend on our own growth. 
She will attend to that. ''Give your work," 
she says, " and your anxiety to others ; trust 
me to add the cubits to your stature." If God 
is adding to our spiritual stature, unfolding 
the new nature within us, it is a mistake to 
"keep twitching at the petals with our coarse 
fingers. We must seek to let the Creative 
Hand alone. "It is God which giveth the in- 
crease." Yet we iiever know how little we 
have learned of the fundamental principle of 
Christianity till we discover how much we are 
^all bent on supplementing God's free grace. 
If God is spending work upon a Christian, let 
him be still and know that it is God. And if 
he wants work, he will find it there — in the 
being still. 

Not that there is no work for him who would 
grow, to do. There is work, and severe w^ork, 
— work so great that the w^orker deserves to 
have himself relieved of all that is superfluous 
during his task. If the amount of energy lost 
in trying to grow were spent in fulfilling rather 
the conditions of growth, we should liave many 
more cubits to show for our stature. It is with 
these conditions that the personal work of the 
10 



146 GROWTH, 

Christian is chiefly concerned. Observe for a 
moment what they are, and their exact relation. 
For its growth tlie plant needs heat, light, air, 
and moisture. A man, therefore, mast go in 
search of these, or their spiritual equivalents, 
and this is his work ? By no means. The 
Christian's work is not yet. Does the plant 
go in search of its conditions ? Xay, the con- 
ditions come to the plant. It no more manu- 
factures the heat, light, air, and moisture, than 
it manufactures its own stem. It finds them 
all around it in Mature. It simply stands still 
with its leaves spread out in unconscious 
prayer, and Nature lavishes upon it these and 
all other bounties, bathing it in sunshine, pour- 
ing the nourishing air over and over it, reviving 
it graciously with its nightly dew. Grace, too, 
is as free as the air. The Lord God is a Sun. 
He is as the Dew to Israel. A man has no 
more to manufacture these than he has to 
manufacture his own soul. He stands sur-' 
rounded by them, bathed in them, beset behind 
and before by them. He lives and moves and 
has his being in them. How then shall he go 
in search of them? Do not they rather go in 
search of him ? Does he not feel how they 
press themselves upon him? Does he not 
know how unweariedly they appeal to him? 
Has he not heard how they are sorrowful wlien 
he will not have them ? His work, therefore, 
is not yet. The voice still says, "Be stilL" 

The conditions of growth then, and the in- 
ward principle of growth being both sup- 
plied by Nature, the thing man has to do, the 



GBOWTH. 147 

little junction left for him to complete, is to 
apply the one to the other. He manufactures 
nothing ; he earns nothing ; he need be anxious 
for nothing ; his one duty is to be in these con- 
ditions, to abide in them, to allow grace to 
play over him, to be still therein and know 
that this is God. 

The conflict begins and prevails in all its life- 
long agony the moment a man forgets this. 
He struggles to grow himself instead of strug- 
gling to get back again into position. He 
makes the church into a workshop when God 
meant it to be a beautiful garden. And even 
in his closet, where only should reign silence— 
a silence as of the mountains whereon the 
lilies grow — is heard the roar and tumult of 
machinery. True, a man will often have to 
wrestle with his God — but not for growth. The 
Christian life is a composed life. The Gospel 
is Peace. Yet the most anxious people in the 
world are Christians — Christians who misun- 
derstand the nature of growth. Life is a per- 
petual self-condemning bec^^use they are not 
growing. And the effect is not only the loss 
of tranquillity to the individual. The energies 
which are meant to be spent on the work of 
Christ'are consumed in the soul's own fever. 
So long as the Church's activities are spent on 
growing there is nothing to spare for the world. 
A soldier's time is not spent in earning the 
money to buy his armor, in finding food and 
raiment, in seeking shelter. His king provides 
these things that he may- be the more at 
liberty to fight his battles. So, for the soldier 



148 . GROWTH. 

of the Cross all is provided. His Government 
has phinned to leave him free for the King- 
dom's work. 

The problem of the Christian life finally is 
simplified to this — man has but to preserve 
the right attitude. To abide in Christ, to be 
in position, that is all. Mucli work is done on 
board a ship crossing tlie Atlantic. Yet none 
of it is spent on making the ship go. The 
sailor but harnesses his vessel to the wind. 
He puts his sail and rudder in position, and lo, 
the miracle is wrought. So everywhere God 
creates, man utilizes. All the work of the 
world is merely a taking advantage of energies 
already there. ^ God gives the Avind and the 
Avater, and the heat ; man but puts himself in 
the w\ay of the wind, fixes his water-wheel in 
the w^ay of the river, puts his piston in the 
way of the steam ; and so holding himself in 
position before God's Spirit, all the energies of 
Omnipotence coui-se within his soul. He is 
like a tiee planted by a river whose leaf is 
green and whose fruits fail not. Such is the 
deeper lesson to be learned from considering 
the lily. It is the voice of Nature echoing the 
Avhole evangel of Jesus, ''Come unto Me, and I 
will give you rest." 

iSee Bushnell's "New Life.'' 



DEATH. 



** What could be easier than to form a catena of the 
most philosophical defenders of Christianity, who 
have exhausted language in declaring the impotence 
of the unassisted intellect ? Comte has not more ex- 
plicitly enounced the incapacity of man to deal with 
the Absolute and the Infinite than the whole series 
of orthodox writers. Trust your reason, we have been 
told till we are tired of the phrase, and you will be- 
come Atheists or Agnostics. "We take you at your 
word ; we become Agnostics." 

Leslie Stephen. 



DEATH. 

** To be carnally minded is Death." — Paul. 
'' I do not wonder at what men suffer, but I wonder 
often at what they lose." — Buskin. 

" Death," wrote Faber, " is an unsurveyed 
land, an unarranged Science." Poetry draws 
near Death only to hover over it for a moment 
and withdraw in terror. History knows it 
simply as a universal fact. Philosophy finds 
it among the mysteries of being, the one great 
mystery of being not. All contributions to 
this dread theme are marked by an essential 
vagueness, and every avenue of approach 
seems darkened by impenetrable shadow. 

But modern Biology has found it part of its 
work to push its way into this silent land, 
and at last the world is confronted with a 
scientific treatment of Death. 'Not that much 
is added to the old conception, or much taken 
from it. What it is, this certain Death with 
its uncertain issues, we know as little as before. 
But we can define more clearly and attach a 
narrower meaning to the momentous symbol. 

The interest of the investigation here lies in 
the fact that Death is one of the outstanding 
things in Nature which has an acknowledged 
spiritual equivalent. The prominence of the 

151 



152 DEATH. 

word in the vocabulary of Revelation cannot 
be exaggerated. Next to Life the most preg- 
nant symbol in religion is its antithesis, Death. 
And from the time that " If thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die " was heard in Paradise, 
this solemn word has been linked with human 
interests of eternal moment. 

Notwithstanding the unparalleled emphasis 
upon this term in the Christian system, there 
is none more feebly expressive to the ordinary 
mind. That mystery which surrounds the 
word in the natural world shrouds only too 
completely its spiritual import. The reluctance 
which prevents men from investigating the 
secrets of the King of Terrors is for a certain 
length entitled to respect. But it has left the- 
ology with only the vaguest materials to con- 
struct a doctrine which, intelligently enforced, 
ought to appeal to all men with convincing 
power and lend the most effective argument to 
Christianity. Whatever may have been its 
influence in the past, its threat is gone for the 
modern world. The word has grown weak. 
Ignorance has robbed the Grave of all its terror, 
and platitude despoilt Death of its sting. 
Death itself is ethically dead. Which of us, 
for example, enters fully into the meaning of 
words like these : " She that liveth in pleasure 
\^ dead while she liveth"? Who allows ade- 
quate weight to the metaphor in the Pauline 
phrase, "To be carnally minded is Death ;'^'' 
or in this, " The wages of sin is Death " ? Or 
what theology has translated into the language 
of human life the terrific practical import of 



DEATH, 153 

" Dead in trespasses and sins " ? To seek to 
make these phrases once more real and burn- 
ing ; to clothe time-worn formulae with living 
truth ; to put the deepest ethical meaning into 
the gravest symbol of Nature, and fill up with 
its full consequence the darkest threat of Rev- 
elation — ^^these are the objects before us now. 

What, then, is Death? Is it possible to 
define it and embody its essential meaning in 
an intelligible proposition ? 

The most recent and tlie most scientific 
attempt to investigate Death we owe to the 
biological studies of Mr. Herbert Spencer. In 
his search for the meaning of Life the word 
Death crosses his path, and he turns aside for 
a moment to define it. Of course what Death 
is depends upon what Life is. Mr. Herbert 
Spencer's definition of Life, it is well known, 
has been subjected to serious criticism. While 
it has shed much light on many of the phe- 
nomena of Life, it cannot be affirmed that it has 
taken its place in science as the final solution 
of the fundamental problem of biology. No 
definition of Life, indeed, that has yet appeared 
can be said to be even approximately correct. 
Its mysterious quality evades us ; and we have 
to be content with outward characteristics and 
accompaniments, leaving the thing itself an 
unsolved rieldle. At the same time Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer's masterly elucidation of the chief 
phenomena of Life has placed philosophy and 
science under many obligations, and in the 
paragraphs which follow we shall have to 
incur a further debt on behalf of religion. 



154 DEATH. 

The meaning of Death depending, as has 
been said, on the meaning of Life, we must 
first set ourselves to grasp the leading charac- 
teristics which distinguish living things. To 
a physiologist the living organism is distin- 
guished from the not-living by the per- 
formance of certain functions. These func- 
tions are four in number — Assimilation, Waste, 
Reproduction, and Growth. Nothing could 
be a more interesting task than to point out 
the co-relatives of these in the spiritual sphere, 
to show in what ways the discharge of these 
functions represent the true manifestations of 
spiritual life, and how the failure to perform 
them constitutes spiritual Death. But it will 
bring us more directly to the specific subject 
before us if we follow rather the newer bio- 
logical lines of Mr. Herbert Spencer. Accord- 
ing to his definition. Life is " The definite com- 
bination of heterogeneous changes, both simul- 
taneous and successive, in correspondence with 
external co-existences and sequences," ^ or more 
shortly " The continuous adjustment of inter- 
nal relations to external relations."^ An ex- 
ample or two will render these important state- 
ments at once intelligible. 

The essential characteristic of a living 
organism, according to these definitions, is 
that it is in vital connection with its general 
surroundings. A human being, for instance, 
is in direct contact with the earth and air, 
with all surrounding things, with the warmth 

1 '* Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 74. 2 ji^i^i^ 



DEATH. - 155 

of the sun, with the music of birds, with the 
countless influences and activities of natvire 
and of his fellow-men. In biological language 
he is said thus to be " in correspondence with 
his environment." He is, that is to say, in 
active and vital connection with them, influenc- 
ing them possibly, but especially being in- 
fluenced by them. Xow it is in virtue of this 
correspondence that he is entitled to be called 
alive. So long as he is in correspondence Avitli 
any given point of his environment, he lives. 
To keep up this correspondence is to keep up 
life. If his environment changes he must in- 
stantly adjust himself to the change. And he- 
continues living only as long as he succeeds 
in adjusting himself to the '' simultaneous and 
successive changes in his environment," as 
these occur. What is meant by a change in 
his environment may be understood from an 
example, which will at the same time define 
more clearly the intimacy of the relation 
between environment and organism. Let us 
take the case of a civil-servant whose environ- 
]nent is a district in India. It is a region sub- 
ject to occasional and prolonged droughts re- 
sulting in periodical' famines. When such a 
period of scarcity arises, lie proceeds immedi- 
ately to adjust himself to this external change. 
Having the power of locomotion, he may re- 
move himself to a more fertile district, or, pos- 
sessing the means of purchase, he may add to 
his old environment by importation the " ex- 
ternal relations," necessary to continued life. 
But if from any cause he fails to adjust him- 



156 DEATH. 

self to the altered circumstances, his body is 
thrown out of correspondence with his environ- 
ment, his "internal relations " are no longer 
adjusted to his " external relations," and his 
life must cease. 

In ordinary circumstances, and in health, 
the human organism is in thorough correspond- 
ence with its surroundings ; but Avhen any 
part of the organism by disease or accident is 
thrown out of correspondence, it is in that 
relation dead. 

This Death, this want of correspondence, 
may be either partial or complete. Part of the 
organism maybe dead to a part of the environ- 
ment, or the whole to the whole. Thus the 
victim of famine may have a certain number 
of his correspondences arrested by the change 
in his environment, but not all. lAixuries 
which he once enjoyed no longer enter the 
country, animals whiali once furnished his 
table are driven from it. These still exist, but 
they are beyond the limit of his correspondence. 
In relation to these thino^s therefore he is dead. 
In one sense ifc might be said that it was the 
environment which played him false ; in an- 
other, that it was his own organization — that 
he was unable to adjust himself, or did not. 
But, however caused, he pays the penalty with 
partial Death. 

Suppose next the case of a man who is 
thrown out of correspondence with a part of 
his environment by some physical infirmity. 
Let it be that l)y disease or accident he has been 
deprived of the use of his ears. The deaf man. 



DEATH, 157 

in virtue of this imperfection, is thrown out of 
rapport with a large and well-defined part of 
the environment, namely, its sounds. With 
regard to that "external relation," therefore, 
he is no longer living. Part of him may truly 
be held to be insensible or "Dead." A man 
who is also blind is thrown out of correspond- 
ence with another large part of his environ- 
ment. The beauty of sea and sk}^, the forms 
of cloud and mountain, the features and gest- 
ures of friends, are to him as if they were not. 
They are there, solid and real, but not to him ; 
he is still further " Dead." JSText, let it be con- 
ceived, the subtle finger of cerebral disease 
lays hold of him. His whole brain is affected, 
and the sensory nerves, the medium of com- 
munication with the environment, cease al- 
together to acquaint him with what is doing 
in the outside world. The outside world is 
still there, but not to him ; he is still fur- 
ther " Dead." And so the death of parts goes 
on. lie becomes less and less alive. " Were 
the animal frame not the complicated machine 
we have seen it to be death might come as a sim- 
ple and gradual dissolution, the ' sans every- 
thing ' being the last stage of the successive 
loss of fundamental powers." ^ But finally 
some important part of the mere animal frame- 
work that remains breaks down. The corre- 
lation witii the other parts is very intimate, 
and the stoppage of correspondence with one 
means an interference with the work of the 

1 Foster's " Physiology,*' p. C42. 



158 DEATH. 

rest. Something central has snapped, and all 
are thrown out of work. The lungs refuse to 
correspond with the air, the heart witli the 
blood. There is now no correspondence what- 
ever with environment — tiie thing, for it is now 
a thing, is Dead. 

This then is Death ; " part of the framework 
breaks down," " something has snapped "— 
these phrases by which we describe the pliases 
of death yield their full meaning. They are 
different ways of saying that '' correspondence" 
has ceased. And the scientific meaning of 
Death now becomes clearly intelligible. Dying 
is that breakdown in an organism which tlirows 
it out of correspondence with some necessary 
part of the environment. Deatli is the result 
produced, the w^ant of correspondence. We do 
not say that this is all that is involved. But 
this is the root idea of Death — Failure to 
adjust internal relations to external relations, 
failure to repair the broken inward connection 
sufficiently to enable it to correspond again 
with the old surroundings. These preliminary 
statements may be fitly closed with the words 
of Mr. Herbert Spencer : " Deatli by natural 
decay occurs because in old age the relations 
between assimihition, oxidation, and genesis 
of force going on in the organism gradually 
fall out of correspondence with the relations 
between oxygen and food and absorption of 
heat by the environment. Death from disease 
arises either when the organism is congenitally 
defective in its power to balance the ordinary 
external actions by the ordinary internal ac- 



DEATH. 15^ 

tions, or when there has taken place some un- 
nsual external action to which there was no 
answering internal action. Death by accident 
implies some neighboring mechanical changes 
of which the causes are either unnoticed from 
inattention, or are so intricate that their results 
cannot be foreseen, and consequently certain 
relations in the organism are not adjusted to 
the relations in the environment." ^ 

With the help of these plain biological terms 
we may now proceed to examine the parallel 
phenomenon of Death in the spiritual Avorld. 
The factors with which we have to deal are 
two in number as before— Organism and En- 
vironment. The relation between them may 
once more be denominated by " correspond- 
ence." And the truth to be emphasized re- 
solves itself into this, that Spiritual Death is a 
want of correspondence between the organism 
and the spiritual environment. 

What is the spiritual environment ? This 
term obviously demands some further defini- 
tion. For Death is a relative term. And 
before we can define Death in the spiritual 
world we must first apprehend the particular 
relation with reference to which the expression 
is to be employed. We shall best reach the 
nature of this relation by considering for a 
moment the subject of environment generally. 
By the natural environment we mean the entire 
surroundings of the natural man, the entire ex- 
ternal world in which he lives and moves and 

1 Op. cit., pp. 88, 89. 



160 DEATH. 

has his being. It is not involved in the idea 
that either with all or part of this environment 
he is in immediate correspondence. Whether 
he corresponds with it or not, it is there. There 
is in fact a conscious environment and an 
environment of which he is not conscious ; and 
it must be borne in mind that the conscious 
environment is not all the environment that is. 
All that surrounds him, all that environs him, 
conscious or unconscious, is environment. 
The moon and stars are part of it, though in 
the daytime he may not see them. The polar 
regions are parts of it, though he is seldom 
aware of their influence. In its widest sense 
environment simply means all elsetliat is. 

Now it will next be manifest that different 
organisms correspond with this environment 
in varying degrees of completeness or incom- 
pleteness. At the bottom of the biological 
scale we find organisms which have only the 
most limited correspondence with their sur- 
roundings. A tree, for example, corresponds 
with the soil about its stem, with the sunlight, 
and with the air in contact with its leaves. 
But it is shut ofl:" by its comparatively low de- 
velopment from a whole world to which higher 
forms of life have additional access. Tlie want 
of locomotion alone circumscribes most seri- 
ously its area of cori-espondence, so that to a 
large part of surrounding nature it may ti'uly 
be said to be dead. So far as consciousness is 
concei'ned, we should be justified indeed in sny- 
ing that it was not alive at all. The nnirmur of 
the stream which bathes its roots affects it not. 



DEATH. 161 

The marvellous insect-life beneath its shadow 
excites in it no wonder. The tender mater- 
nity of the bird which has its nest among its 
leaves stirs no responsive sympathy. It cannot 
correspond with those things. To stream and 
insect and bird it is insensible, torpid, dead. 
For this is Death, this irresponsiveness. 

The bird, again, which is higher in the scale 
of life, corresponds witli a wider environment. 
The stream is real to it, and the insect. It 
knows what lies behind the hill ; it listens to 
the love-song of its mate. And to much be- 
sides beyond the simple world of the tree this 
higher organism is alive. The bird we should 
say is more living than the tree ; it has a cor- 
respondence with a larger area of environment. 
But this bird-life is not yet the highest life. 
Even within the immediate bird-environment 
there is much to which the bird must still be 
held to be dead. Introduce a higher organism, 
place man himself within this same environ- 
ment, and see how much more living he is. A 
hundred things which the bird never saw in 
insect, stream and tree appeal to him. Each 
single sense has something to correspond with. 
Each faculty finds an appropriate exercise. 
Man is a mass of correspondences, and be- 
cause of these, because he is alive to countless 
objects and influences to which lower organisms 
are dead, he is the most living of all creatures. 

The relativity of Death will now have be- 
come sufficiently obvious. Man being left out 
of account, all organisms are seen as it were 
to be partly living and partly dead. The tree, 

n 



1G2 DEATH. 

in correspondence with a narrow area of envi- 
ronment, is to that extent alive ; to all beyond, 
to the all but infinite area beyond, it is dead. 
A still wider portion of this vast area is 
the possession of the insect and the bird. 
Theirs also, nevertheless, is but a little world, 
and to an immense further area insect and bird 
are dead. All organisms likewise are living 
and dead — living to all within the circum- 
ference of their correspondences, dead to all 
beyond. As we rise in the scale of life, how- 
ever, it will be observed that tlie sway of Death 
is gradually weakened. More and more of the 
environment becomes accessible as we ascend, 
and the domain of lif j in this way slowly ex- 
tends in ever- widening circles. But until man 
appears there is no oi-ganism to correspond 
with the whole environment. Till then the 
outermost circles have no correspondents. To 
the inhabitants of the innermost spheres they 
are as if they were not. 

Now follows a momentous question. Is 
man in correspondence with the whole environ- 
ment? When we reach the highest living 
organism, is the final blow dealt to the king- 
dom of Death ? Has the last acre of the infinite 
area been taken in by his finite faculties ? Is 
his conscious environment the whole environ- 
ment? Or is there, among these outermost 
circles, one which with his inultitudinous cor- 
respondences he fails to reach ? If so, this is 
Death. The question of Life or Death to him 
is the question of the amovnit of remaining en- 
vironment he is able to compass. If there be 



DEATH. 163 

one circle or one segment of a circle which he 
yet fails to reach, to correspond with, to know, 
to be influenced by, he is, with regard to that 
circle or segment, dead. 

What then, practically, is the state of the 
case? Is man in correspondence with the 
whole environment or is he not ? There is but 
one answer. He is not. Of men generally it 
cannot be said that they are in living contact 
with that part of the environment which is 
called the spiritual world. In introducing this 
new term spiritual world, observe, we are not 
mterpolating a new factor. This is an es- 
sential part of the old idea. We have been 
following out an ever-widening environment 
from point to point, and now we reach the 
outermost zones. The spiritual world is 
simply the outermost segment, circle, or 
circles, of the natural world. For purposes of 
convenience we separate the two just as we 
separate the animal world from the plant. 
But the animal world and the plant world are 
the same world. They are different parts of 
one environment. And the natural and spir- 
itual are likewise one. The inner circles 
are called the natural, the outer the spiritual. 
And we call them spiritual simply because 
they are beyond us or beyond a part of us. 
What we have correspondence with, that we 
call natural ; what we have little or no cor- 
respondence with, that we call spiritual. But 
when the appropriate corresponding organism 
appears, the organism, that is, which can 
freely communicate with these outer circles, 



164 DEATH. 

the distinction necessarily disappears. The 
spiritual to it becomes the outer circle of the 
natural. 

Now of the great mass of living organisms, 
of the great mass of men, is it not to be affirmed 
that they are out of correspondence with this 
outer circle ? Suppose, to make the final issue 
more real, we give this outermost circle of en- 
vironment a name. Suppose we call it God. 
Suppose also we substitute a word for " corre- 
spondence" to express more intimately the 
personal relation. Let us call it Communion. 
We can now determine accurately the spiritual 
relation of different sections of mankind. 
Those who are in communion with God live, 
those who are not are dead. 

The extent or depth of this communion, the 
varying degrees of correspondence in different 
individuals, and the less or more abundant life 
which these result in, need not concern us for 
the present. The task we have set ourselves 
is to investigate the essential nature of Spir- 
itual Death. And we have found it to consist 
in a want of communion vrith God. The un- 
spiritual man is he who lives in the circum- 
scribed environment of this present world. 
" She that liveth in pleasure is Dead while she 
liveth." '' To be carnally minded is Death." 
To be carnally minded, translated into the 
language of science, is to be limited in one's 
correspondences to the environment of the 
natural man. It is no necessary part of the 
conception that the mind should be either pur- 
posely irreligious, or directly vicious. The 



DEATH. 165 

mind of the flesh, ^pdvrjfia rf/c dapKbc, by its very- 
nature, limited capacity, and time-ward ten^ 
dency, is Oaj/aroc, Death. This earthly mind 
may be of noble calibre, enriched by culture, 
high-toned, virtuous and pure. But if it know- 
not God ? What though its correspondences 
reach to the stars of heaven or grasp the 
magnitudes of Time and Space ? The stars 
of heaven are not heaven. Space is not God. 
This mind, certainly, has life, life up to its level. 
There is no trace of Death. Possibly too, it 
carries its deprivation lightly, and, up to its 
level, lives content. We do not picture the 
possessor of this carnal mind as in any 
sense a monster. We have said he may be 
high-toned, virtuous, and pure. Tlie plant is 
not a monster because it is dead to the voice of 
the bird ; nor is he a monster who is dead to 
the voice of God. The contention at present 
simply is that he is Dead 

We do not need to go to Revelation for the 
proof of this. That has been rendered un- 
necessary by the testimony of the Dead them- 
selves. Thousands have uttered themselves 
upon their relation to the Spiritual World, and 
from their own lips we have the proclamation 
of their Death. The language of theology in 
describing the state of the natural man is often 
regarded as severe. The Pauline anthropology 
has been challenged as an insult to human 
nature. Culture has opposed the doctrine that 
" The natural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them, because they 



166 DEATH. 

are spiritupJly discerned." And even some 
modern theologies have refused to accept the 
most plain of the aphorisms of Jesus, that 
" Except a man be born again he cannot see 
the Kingdom of God." But this stern doctrine 
of the spiritual deadness of humanity, is no 
mere dogma of a past theology. The history 
of thought during the present century proves 
that the world has come round spontaneously 
to the position of the first. One of the ablest 
philosophical schools of the day erects a whole 
antichristian system on this very doctrine. 
Seeking by means of it to sap the foundation 
of spiritual religion, it stands unconsciously as 
the most significant witness for its truth. 
What is the creed of the Agnostic, but the con- 
fession of the spiritual numbness of humanity ? 
The negative doctrine which it reiterates with 
such sad persistency, what is it but the echo 
of the oldest of scientific and religious 
truths ? And what are all these gloomy and 
rebellious infidelities, these touching, and too 
sincere confessions of universal nescience, but 
a protest against this ancient law of Death ? 

The Christian apologist never further misses 
the mark than when he refuses the testimony 
of the Agnostic to himself. When the Agnos- 
tic tells me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid 
and dead to the spiritual world, I must believe 
him. Jesus tells me that. Paul tells me that. 
Science tells me that. He knows nothing of 
this outermost circle ; and we are compelled to 
trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores 
it as if, being a man without an ear, he pro- 



DEATH. 167 

fessed to know nothing of a musical wofld or 
being without taste, of a world of art. The 
nescience of the Agnostic philosophy is the 
proof from experience that to be carnally 
minded is Death. Let the theological value of 
the concession be duly recognized. It brings 
no solace to the unspiritual man to be told he 
is mistaken. To say he is self- deceived is 
neither to compliment him nor Christianity. 
He builds in all sincerity who raises his altar 
to the Unhnown God. He does not know God. 
With all his marvellous and complex correspon- 
dences, he is still one correspondence short. 

It is a point worthy of special note that the 
proclamation of this truth has always come 
from science rather than from religion. Its 
general acceptance by thinkers is based upon 
the universal failure of a universal experiment. 
The statement, therefore, that the natural man 
discerneth not the things of the spirit, is never 
to be charged against the intolerance of theo- 
logy. There is no point at which theology has 
been more modest than here. It has left the 
preachmg of a great fundamental truth almost 
entirely to philosophy and science. And so 
very moderate has been its tone, so slight has 
been the emphasis placed upon the paralysis of 
the natural with regard to the spiritual, that it 
may seem to some to have been intolerantly 
tolerant. No harm certainly could come now, 
no offence could be given to science, if religion 
disserted more clearly its right to the spiritual 
world. Science has paved the way for the 
reception of one of the most revolutionary 



168 DEATH. 

doctrines of Christianity ; and if Christianity- 
refuses to take advantage of the opening it 
will manifest a culpable want of conlidence in 
itself. There never was a time when its funda- 
mental doctrines could more boldly be pro- 
claimed, or when they could better secure the 
respect and arrest the interest of Science. 

To all this, and apparently with force, it 
may, however, be objected that to every man 
who truly studies Nature there is a God, 
Call him by whatever name — a Creator, a 
Supreme Being, a Great First Cause, a Power 
that makes for Righteousness — Science has a 
God ; and he who believes in this, in spite of 
all protest, possesses a theology. '' If we will 
look at things, and not merely at words, we 
shall soon see that the scientific man has a the- 
ology and a God, a most impressive theology, a 
most awful and glorious God. I say that man 
believes in a God, who feels himself in the 
presence of a Power which is not himself, and 
is immeasurably above himself, a Power in the 
contemplation of which he is absorbed, in the 
knowledge of which he finds safety and happi- 
ness. And such now is Nature to the scien- 
tific man." ^ Such now, we humbly submit, is 
Nature to very few. Their own confession is 
against it. That they are "absorbed" in the 
contemplation we can well believe. That they 
might "find safety and happiness" in the 
knowledge of Ilim is also possible — if they had 
it. But this is just what they tell us they 

A** Natural Religion, '' p. 19. 



DEATH. 169 

have not. What they deny is not a God. It 
is the correspondence. The very confession of 
the Unknowable is itself the dull recognition 
of an Environment beyond themselves, and for 
which they feel they lack the correspondence. 
It is this want that makes their God the Un- 
known God. And it is this that makes them 
dead. 

We have not said, or implied, that there is 
not a God of Nature. We have not affirmed 
that there is no Natural Religion. We are 
assured there is. We are even assured that 
without a Religion of Nature, Religion is only 
half complete ; that without a God of Nature, 
the God of Revelation is only half intelligible 
and only partially known. God is not confined 
to the outermost circle of environment. He lives 
and moves and has his being in the whole. 
Those who only seek Him in the further zone 
can only find a part. The Christian who knows 
not God in Nature, who does not, that is to 
say, correspond with the whole environment, 
most certainly is partially dead. The author 
of " Ecce Homo " may be partially right when 
he says ; " I think a bystander would say that 
though Christianity had in it something far 
higher and deeper and more ennobling, yet the 
average scientific man worships just at present 
a more awful, and, as it were, a greater Deity 
than the average Christian. In so many 
Christians the idea of God has been degraded 
by childish and little-minded teaching ; the 
Eternal and the Infinite and the All-embracing 
has been represented as the head of the cleri- 



170 DEATH, 

cal interest, as a sort of clergyman, as a sort 
of schoolmaster, as a sort of philanthropist. 
But the scientific man knows Him to be 
eternal ; in astronomy, in geology, he becomes 
familiar with the countless millenniums of His 
lifetime. The scientific man strains his mind 
actually to realize God's infinity. As far off 
as the fixed stars he traces Him, 'distance 
inexpressible by numbers that have name.' 
Meanwhile, to the theologian, infinity and 
eternity are very much of empty words when 
applied to the Object of his worship. He does 
not realize them in actual facts and definite 
computations." ^ Let us accept this rebuke. 
The principle that w^ant of correspondence is 
Death applies all round. He who knows not 
God in Nature only partially lives. The con- 
verse of this, however, is not true ; and that is 
the point we are insisting on. He who knows 
God only in Nature lives not. There is no 
" correspondence " with an Unknown God, no 
"continuous adjustment " to a fixed First 
Cause. There is no " assimilation " of Natural 
Law ; no growth in the Image of " the All-em- 
bracing." To coi'respond with the God of 
Science assuredly is not to live. " This is Life 
Eternal, to know Thee, the true God^ and Jesus 
Christ Whom Thou hast sent." 

From the service we have tried to make 
natural science render to our rehgion, we 
might be expected possibly to take up the 
position that the absolute contribution of 

1 '^ Natural Religion," p. 20. 



DEATH. 171 

Science to Revelation was very great. On the 
contrary, it is very small. The absolute con- 
tribution, that is, is very small. The contri- 
bution on the whole is immense, vaster than 
we have yet any idea of. But without the aid 
of the higher Revelation this many-toned and 
far-reaching voice had been forever dumb. 
The light of Nature, say the most for it, is dim 
— how dim we ourselves, with the glare of 
other Light upon the modern world, can only 
realize when we seek among the pagan records 
of the past for the gropings after truth of 
those whose only light was this. Powerfully 
significant and touching as these efforts were 
in their success, they are far more significant 
and touching in their failure. For they did 
fail. It requires no philosophy now to speculate 
on the adequacy or inadequacy of the Religion 
of Nature. For us who could never weigh it 
rightly in the scales of Truth it has been tried 
in the balance of experience and found want- 
ing. Theism is the easiest of all religions to 
get, but the most difficult to keep. Individuals 
have kept it, but nations never. Socrates and 
Aristotle, Cicero and Epictetus had a theistic 
religion; Greece and Rome had none. And 
even after getting what seems like a firm place 
in the minds of men, its unstable equilibrium 
sooner or later betrays itself. On the one 
hand theism has always fallen into the wildest 
polytheism, or on the other into the blankest 
atheism. " It is an indubitable historical fact 
that, outside of the sphere of special revela- 
tion, man has never obtained such a knowl- 



172 DEATH, 

edge of God as a responsible and religious 
being plainly requires. The wisdom of the hea- 
then world, at its very best, was utterly inade- 
quate to the accomplishment of such a task as 
creating a due abhorrence of sin, controlling the 
passions, purifying the heart and ennobling the 
conduct." ^ 

What is the inference? That this poor 
rushlight by itself was never meant to lend 
the ray by which man should read the riddle 
of the universe. The mystery is too impene- 
trable and remote for its uncertain flicker to 
more than make the darkness deeper. What 
indeed if this were not a light at all, but only 
part of a light — the carbon point, the fragment 
of calcium, the reflector in the great Lantern 
which contains the Light of the World? 

This is one inference. But the most impor- 
tant is that the absence of the true Light 
means moral Death. The darkness of the 
natural world to the intellect is not all. 
What history testifies to is, first the partial, 
and then the total eclipse of virtue that always 
follows the abandonment of belief in a per- 
sonal God. It is not, as has been pointed out 
a hundred times, that morality in the abstract 
disappears, but the motive and sanction are 
gone. There is nothing to raise it from the 
dead. Man's attitude to it is left to himself. 
Grant that morals have their own base in hu- 
man life; grant that Nature has a Religion 
whose creed is Science ; there is yet nothing 

1 Prof. Flint, "Theism," p. 305. 



DEATH, 178 

apart from God to save the world from moral 
Death. Morality has the power to dictate but 
none to move. Nature directs but cannot con- 
trol. As was wisely expressed in one of many 
pregnant utterances during a recent SympO" 
sium^ " Though the decay of religion may 
leave the institutes of morality intact, it drains 
off their inward power. The devout faith of 
men expresses and measures the intensity of 
their moral nature, and it cannot be lost with- 
out a remission of enthusiasm, and under this 
low pressure, the successful re-entrance of 
importunate desires and clamorous passions 
which have been driven back. To believe in 
an ever-living and perfect Mind, supreme over 
the universe, is to invest moral distinctions 
with immensity and eternity, and lift them 
from the provincial stage of human society to 
the imperishable Uieatre of all being. When 
planted thus in the very substance of things, 
they justify and support the ideal estimates 
of the conscience; they deepen every guilty 
shame ; they guarantee every righteous hope ; 
and they help the will with a Divine casting- 
vote in every balance of temptation." ^ That 
morality has a basis in human society, that 
Nature has a Religion, surely makes the Death 
of the soul when left to itself all the more ap- 
palling. It means that, between them, Nature 
and morality provide all for virtue — except 
the Life to live it. 

^Martineau. Vide the whole Symposium on " The 
Influences upon Morality of a Decline in Keligious ^^- 
lieV— -Nineteenth Century, vol. i. pp. 331, 531. 



174 DEATH, 

It is at this point accordingly that our sub- 
ject comes into intimate contact witli Religion. 
The proposition that " to be carnally minded 
is Death" even the moralist will assent to. 
But when it is further announced that " the 
carnal mind is emnity against God'''' we find 
ourselves in a different region. And when we 
find it also stated that '' the wages of sin is 
Death," we are in the heart of the profoundest 
questions of theology. What before was 
merely "enmity against society " becomes 
"enmity against God;" and what was "vice" 
is " sin." The conception of a God gives an 
alto2rether new color to worldliness and vice. 
Worldliness it changes into heathenism, vice 
into blasphemy. The carnal mind, the mind 
which is turned away from God, which will 
not correspond with God — this is not moral 
only but spiritual Death. And Sin, that which 
separates from God, which disobeys God, 
which can not in that state correspond with 
God — this is hell. 

To the estrangement of the soul from God 
the best of theology traces the ultimate cause 
of sin. Sin is simply apostasy from God, un- 
belief in God. " Sin is manifest in its true 
character when the demand of holiness in the 
conscience, presenting itself to the man as one 
of loving submission to God, is put from him 
with aversion. Here sin appears as it really is, 
a turning away from God ; and while the man's 
guilt is enhanced, there ensues a benumbing of 
the heart resulthig from the crushing of those 
higher impulses. This is what is meant by the 



DEATH. 175 

reprobate state of those who reject Christ and 
will not believe the Gospel, so often spoken of 
in the New Testament ; this unbelief is just 
tlie closing of the heart against the highest 
love." ^ The other view of sin, probably the 
more popular at present, that sin consists in 
selfishness, is merely this from another aspect. 
Obviousl}^ if the mind turns away from one 
part of the environment it will only do so under 
some temptation to correspond with another. 
This temptation, at bottom, can only come from 
one source — -the love of self. The irreligious 
man's correspondences are concentrated upon 
himself. He worships himself. Self-gratifi- 
cation rather than self-denial; independence 
rather than submission — these are the rules of 
life. And this is at once the poorest and the 
commonest form of idolatry. 

But whicl)iever of these views of sin we 
emphasize we find both equally connected with 
Death. If sin is estrangement from God, this 
very estrangement is Death. It is a want of 
correspondence. If sin is selfishness, it is con- 
ducted at the expense of life. Its wages are 
Death — " he that loveth his life," said Christ, 
*' shall lose it." 

Yet the paralysis of the moral nature apart 
from God does not only depend for its evidence 
upon theology or even upon history. From 
the analogies of Nature one would expect this 
result as a necessary consequence. The de- 
velopment of any organism in any direction is 

iMiiller; "Christian Doctrine of Sin," 2d Ed. vol. i. 
p. 131. 



176 DEATH, 

dependent on its environment. A living cell 
cut off from air will die. A seed-germ 
apart from moisture and an appropriate tem- 
perature will make the ground its grave for 
centuries. Human nature, likewise, is subject 
to similar conditions. It can only develop in 
presence of its environment. No matter what 
its possibilities may be, no matter what seeds 
of thought or virtue, what germs of genius or 
of art, lie latent in its breast, until the appro- 
priate environment presents itself the corre- 
spondence is denied, the development discour- 
raged, the most splendid possibilities of life 
remain unrealized, and thought and virtue, 
genius and art, are dead. The true environ- 
ment of the moral life is God. Here conscience 
wakes. Here kindles love. Duty here be- 
comes heroic ; and that righteousness begins 
to live which alone is to live forever. But if 
this Atmosphere is not, the dwarfed soul must 
perish for mere want of its native air. And 
its Death is a strictly natural Death. It is not 
an exceptional judgment upon Atheism. In 
the same circumstances, in the same averted 
relation to their environment, the poet, the 
musician, the artist, would alike perish to po- 
etry, to music, and to art. Every environment 
is a cause. Its effect upon me is exactly pro- 
portionate to my correspondence with it. If I 
correspond with part of it, part of myself is 
influenced. If I correspond with more, more 
of myself is influenced; if with all, all is in- 
fluenced. If I correspond with the world, I be^ 
come worldly ; if with God, I become Divine. 



DEATH. 177 

As without correspondence of the scientific man 
with the natural environment there could be 
no Science and no action founded on the knowl- 
edge of Nature, so without communion with the 
spiritual Environment there can be no Religion. 
To refuse to cultivate the religious relation is 
to deny to the soul its highest right — the right 
to a further evolution.^ 

We have already admitted that he who knows 
not God may not be a monster ; we cannot say 
he will not be a dwarf. This precisely, and on 
perfectly natural principles, is what he must 
be. You can dwarf a soul just as you can dwarf 
a plant, by depriving it of a full environment. 
Such a soul for a time may have " a name to 
live." Its character may betray no sign of 
atrophy. But its very virtue somehow has 
the pallor of a flower that is grown in dark- 
ness, or as the herb which has never seen the 
sun, no fragrance breathes from its spirit. To 

lit would not be difficult to show, were this the im- 
mediate subject, that it is not only a right but a duty to 
exercise the spiritual faculties, a duty demanded not 
by relifi^ion merely, but by science. Upon biological 
principles man owes his full development to himself, 
to nature, and to his fellow-men. Thus Mr. Herbert 
Spencer affirms, " The performance of every function is, 
in a sense, a moral obligation. It is usually thought 
that morality requires us only to restrain such vital ac- 
tivities as, in our x>resent state, are often pushed to 
excess, or such as conflict with average welfare, special 
or general ; but it also requires us to carry on these vital 
activities up to their normal limits. All the animal 
functions, in common with all the higher functions, have, 
as thus understood, their imperativeness."— " The Data 
of Ethics," 2d Ed. p. 76. 
12 



178 DEATH, 

morality, possibly, this organism offers the 
example of an irreproachable life ; but to sci- 
ence it is an instance of arrested development; 
and to religion it presents the spectacle of a 
corpse — a living Death. With Ruskin, " I do 
do not wonder at what men suffer, but I wonder 
often at what they lose." 



MORTIFICATION. 



** If, by tying its main artery, we stop most of the 
blood going to a limb, then, for as long as the limb 
performs its function, those parts which are called 
into play must be wasted faster than they are re- 
paired : whence eventual disablement. The relation 
between due receipt of nutritive matters through its 
arteries, and due discharge of its duties by the limb, 
is a part of the physical order. If instead of cutting 
off the supply to a particular limb, we bleed the patient 
largely, so drafting away the materials needed for 
repairing not one limb but all limbs, and not limbs 
only but viscera, there results both a muscular debility 
and an enfeeblement of the vital functions. Here, 
again, cause and effect are necessarily related. . . . 
Pass now to those actions more commonly thought of 
as the occasions for rules of conduct." 

Herbert Spencer. 



MORTIFICATION. 

''Mortify therefore your members which are upon 
earth." — Paul. 
'' O Star-eyed Science ! hast thou wandered there 

To waft us home the message of despair ? " — CampbelL 

The definition of Death which science has 
given us is this : A falling out of Gorrespoiulence 
vnth environment. When, for example, a man 
loses the sight of his eyes, his correspondence 
with the environing world is curtailed. His 
life is limited in an important direction; he is 
less living than he was before. If, in addition, 
he lose the senses of touch and hearing, his 
correspondences are still further limited ; he is 
therefore still further dead. And when all 
possible correspondences have ceased, when 
the nerves decline to respond to any stimulus, 
when the lungs close their gates against the 
air, when the heart refuses to correspond with 
the blood by so much as another beat, tlie in- 
sensate corpse is wholly and forever dead. 
The soul, in like manner, which has no corre- 
spondence with the spiritual environment is 
spiritually dead. It may be that it never 
possessed the spiritual eye or the spiritual ear, 
or a heart which throbbed in response to the 
love of God. If so, having never lived, it can- 



182 MOB TIFICA TION. 

not be said to have died. But not to have 
these correspondences is to be in the state of 
Death. To the spiritual world, to the Divine 
Environment, it is dead — as a stone which has 
never lived is dead to the environment of the 
organic world. 

Having already abundantly illustrated this 
use of the symbol Death, we may proceed to 
deal witli another class of expressions where 
the sauie term is employed in an exactly 
opposite connection. It is a proof of the radical 
nature of religion that a word so extreme 
sliould have to be used again and again in 
Christian teaching, to define in different direc- 
tions the true spiritual relations of mankind. 
Hitherto we have concerned ourselves with the 
condition of the natural man with regard to 
the spiritual world. We have now to speak of 
the relations of the spiritual man with regard 
to the natural world. Carrying with us the 
same essential principle — want of correspond- 
ence — underlying the meaning of Death, we 
shall find that the relation of the spiritual man 
to the natural world, or at least to part of it, 
is to be that of Death. 

When the natural man becomes the spiritual 
man, the great change is described by Christ 
as a passing from Death unto Life. Before 
the transition occurred, the practical difficulty 
was this, how to get into correspondence with 
the new Environment? But no sooner is this 
correspondence established than the problem 
is reversed. The question now is, how to get 
out of correspondence with the old environ- 



MORTIFICATION. 183 

ment ? The moment the new life is begun there 
comes a genuine anxiety to break with the old. 
For the former environment has now become 
embarrassing. It refuses its dismissal from 
consciousness. It competes doggedly with the 
new Environment for a share of the corre- 
spondences. And in a hundred ways the former 
traditions, the memories and passions of the 
past, the fixed associations and habits of the 
earlier life, now complicate the new relation. 
The complex and bewildered soul, in fact, finds 
itself in correspondence with two environments, 
each with urgent but yet incompatible claims. 
It is a dual soul living in a double world, a world 
whose inhabitants are deadly enemies, and en- 
gaged in perpetual civil- war. 

The position of things is perplexing. It is 
clear that no man can attempt to live both 
lives. To walk both in the flesh and in the 
spirit is morally impossible. "N'o man," as 
Christ so often emphasized, " can serve two 
masters." And yet, as matter of fact, here is 
the ncAV-born being in communication with 
both environments? With sin and purity, 
light and darkness, time and Eternity, God 
and Devil, the confused and undecided soul is 
now in correspondence. What is to be done 
in such an emergency? How can the New 
Life deliver itself from the still-persistent past ? 

A ready solution of the difiiculty would be 
to die. Were one to die organically, to die and 
" go to heaven," all correspondence with the 
lower environment would be arrested at a 
stroke. For Physical Death of course simply 



184 MORTIFICATION. 

means the final stoppage of all natural corre- 
spondences with this sinful world. But this 
alternative, fortunately or unfortunately, is 
not open. The detention here of body and 
spirit for a given period is determined for us, 
and we are morally bound to accept the 
situation. We must look then for a further 
alternative. 

Actual Death being denied us, we must ask 
ourselves if there is nothing else resembling 
it — no artificial relation, no imitation or sem- 
blance of Death which would serve our purpose. 
If Ave cannot yet die absolutely, surely the 
next best thing will be to find a temporary 
substitute. If we cannot die altogether, in 
short, the most we can do is to die as much as 
M^e can. And we now know this is open tons, 
and how. To die to any environment is to 
withdraw correspondence with it, to cut our- 
selves off, so far as possible, from all com- 
munication with it. So that the solution of 
the problem will simply be this, for the spirit- 
ual life to reverse continuously the processes 
of the natural life. The spiritual man having 
passed from Death unto Life, the natural man 
must next proceed to pass from Life unto 
Death. Having opened the new set of corre- 
spondences, he must deliberately close up the 
old. Regeneration in short must be accom- 
panied by Degeneration. 

Now it is no surprise to find that this is 
the process everywhere described and recom- 
mended by the founders of the Christian sys- 
tem. Their proposal to the natural man, or 



MORTIFICATION. 185 

rather to the natural part of the spiritual man, 
with regard to a whole series of inimical rela- 
tions, is precisely this. If he cannot really 
die, he must make an adequate approach to it 
by " reckoning himself dead." Seeing that, 
until the cycle of his organic life is complete 
he cannot die physically, he must meantime 
die morally, reckoning himself morally dead 
to that environment which, by competing for 
his correspondences, has now become an ob- 
stacle to his spiritual life. 

The variety of ways in which the New Tes- 
tament writers insist upon this somewhat ex- 
traordinary method is sufficiently remarkable. 
And although the idea involved is essentially 
the same throughout, it will clearly illustrate 
the nature of the act if we examine separately 
three different modes of expression employed 
in the later Scriptures in this connection. The 
methods hy which the spiritual man is to with- 
draw himself from the old environment — or 
from that part of it which will directly hinder 
the spiritual life — are three in number : 

First, Suicide. 
Second, Mortification.' 
Third, Limitation. 

It will be found in practice that these dif- 
ferent methods are adapted, respectively, t) 
meet three different forms of temptation ; S') 
that we possess a sufficient warrant for givin,^ 
a brief separate treatment to each. 

First, Suicide. Stated in undisguised phra- 



186 MOBTIFICATION. 

seology, the advice of Paul to the Christian, 
with regard to a part of his nature, is to com- 
mit suicide. If the Christian is to " live unto 
God," he must " die unto sin." If he does not 
kill sin, sin will inevitably kill him. Recog- 
nising this, he must set himself to reduce the 
number of his correspondences — retaining and 
developing those which lead to a fuller life, 
unconditionally withdrawing those which in 
any way tend in an opposite direction. This 
stoppage of correspondences is a voluntary act, 
a crucifixion of the flesh, a suicide. 

N^ow the least experience of life will make 
it evident that a large class of sins can only 
be met, as it were, by Suicide. The peculiar 
feature of Death by Suicide is that it is not 
only self-inflicted but sudden. And there are 
many sins which must either be dealt with 
suddenly or not at all. Under this category, 
for instance, are to be included generally all 
sins of the appetites and passions. Other sins, 
from their peculiar nature, can only be treated 
by methods less abrupt, but the sudden opera- 
tion of the knife is the only successful means 
of dealing with fleshly sins. For example, the 
correspondence of the drunkard with his wine 
is a thing which can be broken off by degrees 
only in the rarest cases. To attempt it grad- 
ually may in an isolated case succeed, but even 
then the slightly prolonged gratiflcation is no 
compensation for the slow torture of a grad- 
ually diminishing indulgence. "If thine ap- 
Detite offend thee cut it off," may seem at first 
3ut a harsh remedv; but when we contem- 



MORTIFICATION. 187 

plate on the one hand the lingering pain of the 
gradual process, on the other its constant peril, 
we are compelled to admit that the principle 
is as kind as it is wise. The expression " total 
abstinence," in such a case is a strictly bio- 
logical formula. It implies the sudden de- 
struction of a definite portion of environment 
by the total withdrawal of all the connecting 
links. Obviously of course total abstinence 
ought thus to be allowed a much wider ap- 
plication than to cases of " intemperance." It 
is the only decisive method of dealing with any 
sin of the flesh. The very nature of the rela- 
tions makes it absolutely imperative that 
every victim of unlawful appetite, in whatever 
direction, shall totally abstain. Hence Christ's 
apparently extreme and peremptory language 
defines the only possible, as well as the only 
charitable, expedient: "If thy right eye offend 
thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. And 
if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and 
cast it from thee." 

The humanity of what is called " sudden 
conversion" has never been insisted on as it 
deserves. In discussing " Biogenesis," ^ it has 
been already pointed out that while growth is 
a slow and gradual process, the change from 
Death to Life alike in the natural and spiritual 
spheres is the work of a moment. Whatever 
the conscious hour of the second birth may be 
— in the case of an adult it is probably defined 
by the first real victory over sin — it is certain 



^Page 93. 



188 MORTIFICATION. 

that on biological principles the real turning- 
point is literally a moment. But on moral 
and humane grounds this misunderstood, per- 
verted, and therefore despised doctrine is 
equally capable of defence. Were any re- 
former, with an adequate knowledge of human 
life, to sit down and plan a scheme for the 
salvation of sinful men, he would probably 
come to the conclusion that the best way after 
all, perhaps indeed the only way, to turn a 
sinner from the errors of his ways would be 
to do it suddenly. 

Suppose a drunkard were advised to take 
off one portion from his usual allowance the 
first week, another the second, and so on ! Or 
suppose at first he only allowed himself to be- 
come intoxicated in the evenings, then every 
second evening, then only on Saturday nights, 
and finally only every Christmas? How 
would a thief be reformed if he slowly reduced 
the number of his burglaries, or a wife-beater 
by gradually diminishing the number of his 
blows ? The argument ends with an ad ab- 
surdum. " Let him that stole steed no more^'^ 
is the only feasible, the only moral, and the 
only humane way. This may not apply to 
every case, but when any part of man's sinful 
life can be dealt Avitli by immediate Suicide, 
to make him reach the end, even were it pos- 
sible, by a lingering death, would be a 
monstrous cruelty. And yet it is this very 
thing in "sudden conversion," that men ob- 
ject to — the sudden change, the decisive stand, 
the uncompromising rupture with the past, the 



MORTIFICATION. 189 

precipitate flight from sin as of one escaping 
for his life. Men surely forget that this is an 
escaping for one's life. Let the poor prisoner 
run — madly and blindly if he likes, for the 
terror of Death is upon him. God knows, 
when the pause comes, how the chains will 
gall him still. 

It is a peculiarity of the sinful state, that 
as a general rule men are linked to evil mainly 
by a single correspondence. Few men break 
the whole law. Our natures, fortunately, are 
not large enough to make us guilty of all, and 
the restraints of circumstances are usually 
such as to leave a loophole in the life of each 
individual for only a single habitual sin. But 
it is very easy to see how this reduction of our 
intercourse with evil to a single correspond- 
ence blinds us to our true position. Our cor- 
respondences, as a whole, are not with evil, 
and in our calculations as to our spiritual con- 
dition we emphasize the many negatives rather 
than the single positive. One little weakness, 
we are apt to fancy, all men must be allowed, 
and we even claim a certain indulgence for 
that apparent necessity of nature which we 
call our besetting sin. Yet to break with the 
lower environment at all, to many, is to break 
at this single point. It is the only important 
point at which they touch it, circumstances or 
natural disposition making habitual contact at 
other places impossible. The sinful environ- 
ment, in short, to them means a small but 
well-defined area. Now if contact at this 
point be not broken off, they are virtually 



190 MOnriFlCATION. 

in contact still with the whole environment. 
There may be only one avenue between the new 
life and the old, it may be but a small and sicb- 
terranean passage^ but this is sufl&cient to keep 
the old life in. So long as that remains the 
victim is not " dead unto sin," and therefore 
he cannot " live unto God." Hence the rea- 
sonableness of the words, "Whosoever shall 
keep the whole law, and yet offend at one 
point, he is guilty of all." In the natural 
world it only requires a single vital correspond- 
ence of the body to be out of order to ensure 
Death. It is not necessary to have consump- 
tion, diabetes, and aneurism to bring the body 
to the grave if it have heart-disease. He who 
is fatally diseased in one organ necessarily 
pays the penalty with his life, though all the 
others be in perfect health. And such, like- 
wise, are the mysterious unity and correlation 
of functions in the spiritual organism that the 
disease of one member may involve the ruin of 
the whole. The reason, therefore, with which 
Christ follows up the announcement of His 
Doctrine of Mutilation, or local Suicide, finds 
here at once its justification and interpretation : 
" If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and 
cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee 
that one of thy members should perish, and 
not that thy v^hole body should be cast into hell. 
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, 
and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for 
thee that one of thy members should perish, 
and not that thy ichole body should be cast 
into hell." 



MORTIFICATION. 191 

Secondly, Mortification. The warrant for 
the use of this expression is found in the well- 
known phrases of Paul, " If ye through the 
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall 
live," and " Mortify therefore your members 
which are upon earth." The word mortify 
-here is, literally, to make to die. It is used, of 
course, in no specially technical sense ; and to 
attempt to draw a detailed moral from the 
pathology of mortification would be equally 
fantastic and irrelevant. But without in any 
way straining the meaning it is obvious that 
we have here a slight addition to our concep- 
tion of dying to sin. In contrast with suicide. 
Mortification implies a gradual rather than a 
sudden process. The contexts in Avhich the 
passages occur will make this meaning so clear, 
and are otherwise so instructive in the general 
connection, that we may quote them, from the 
New Version, at length : " They that are after 
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they 
that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 
For the mind of the flesh is death ; but the 
mind of the Spirit is life and peace : because 
the mind of the flesh is enmity against God ; 
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither 
indeed can it be : and they that are in the flesh 
cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, 
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 
dwell in you. But if any man hath not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if 
Christ is in you, the body is dead because of 
sin ; but the Spirit is hfe because of righteous- 
ness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up 



1 92 MOR TIFICA TION. 

Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that 
raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall 
quicken also your mortal bodies through His 
Spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, brethren, 
we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the 
flesh : for if ye live after the flesh ye must die ; 
but if by the spirit ye mortify the doings 
(marg.) of the body, ye shall live." ^ 

And again, " If then ye were raised together 
with Christ, seek the things that are above, 
where Christ is seated on the right hand of 
God. Set your mind on the things that are 
above, not on the things that are upon the 
earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, 
shall be manifested, then shall ye also with 
Him be manifested in glory. Mortify there- 
fore your members which are upon the earth; 
fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, 
and covetousness, the which is idolatry; for 
which things' sake cometh the wrath of God 
upon the sons of disobedience; in the which 
ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in 
these things. But now put ye also away all 
these ; anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful 
speaking out of your mouth : lie not one to an- 
other ; seeing that ye have put off the old man 
with his doings, and have put on the new man, 
which is being renewed unto knowledge after 
the image of Him that created him." ^ 

From the nature of the case as here stated 
it is evident that no sudden process could en- 

1 Rome, viii. 5-13. ^ Col. iii. 1-10. 



MORTIFICATIOK, 19 



o 



tirely transfer a man from the old into the new 
relation. To break altogether, and at every 
point, with the old environment, is a simple 
impossibility. So long as the regenerate man 
is kept in this world, he must find the old en- 
vironment at many points a severe temptation. 
Power over very many of the commonest temp- 
tations is only to be won by degrees, and how- 
ever anxious one might be to apply the sum- 
mary method to every case, he soon finds it 
impossible in practice. The difficulty in these 
cases arises from a peculiar feature of the 
temptation. The difference between a sin of 
drunkenness, and, let us say, a sin of temper, 
is that in the former case the victim who 
would reform has mainly to deal with the en- 
vironment, but in the latter with the correspon- 
dence. The drunkard's temptation is a known 
and definite quantity. His safety lies in avoid- 
ing some external and material substance. Of 
course, at bottom, he is really dealing with the 
correspondence every time he resists; he is 
distinctly controlling appetite. Nevertheless 
it is less the appetite that absorbs his mind 
than the environment. And so long as he can 
keep himself clear of the " external relation," 
to use Mr. Herbert Spencer's phraseology, he 
has much less difficulty with the "internal 
relation." The ill-tempered person, on the other 
hand, can make very little of his environment. 
However he may attempt to circumscribe it in 
certain directions, there will always remain a 
wide and ever-changing area to stimulate his 
irascibility. His environment, in short, is an 
13 



1 94 MOB TIFICA TIOJST. 

inconstant quantity, and his most elaborate 
calculations and precautions must often and 
suddenly fail him. 

What he has to deal with, then, mainly is the 
correspondence, the temper itself. And that, 
he well knows, involves a long and humiliating 
discipline. The case now is not at all a surgical 
but a medical one, and the knife is here of no 
more use than in a fever. A specific irritant 
has poisoned his veins. And the acrid humors 
that are breaking out all over the surface of 
his life are only to be subdued by a gradual 
sweetening of the inward spirit. It is now 
known that the human body acts towards 
certain fever-germs as a sort of soil. The man 
whose blood is pure has nothing to fear. So 
he whose spirit is purified and sweetened be- 
comes proof against these germs of sin. " An- 
ger, wrath, malice and railing " in such a soil 
can find no root. 

The difference between this and the former 
method of dealing with sin may be illustrated 
by another analogy. The two processes depend 
upon two different natural principles. The muti- 
lation of a member, for instance, finds its ana- 
logue in the horticultural operation of priDiing^ 
where the object is to divert life from a useless 
into a useful channel. A part of a plant which 
previously monopolized a large share of the 
vigor of the total organism, but without yielding 
any adequate return, is suddenly cut oft", so that 
the vital processes may proceed more actively 
in some fruitful parts. Christ's use of this fig- 
ure is well-known : " Every branch in Me that 



MOR TIFICA TION. 195 

beareth not fruit He purgeth it that it may 
bring forth more fruit." The strength of the 
plant, that is, being given to the formation of 
mere wood, a number of useless correspond- 
ences have to be abruptly closed while the use- 
ful connections are allowed to remain. The 
Mortification of a member, again, is based on 
the Law of Degeneration. The useless mem- 
ber here is not cut off, but simply relieved as 
much as possible of all exercise. This en- 
courages the gradual decay of the parts, and 
as it is more and more neglected it ceases to be a 
channel for life at all. So an organism " morti- 
fies " its members. 

Thirdly, Limitation. While a large number 
of correspondences between man and his en- 
vironment can be stopped in these ways, there 
are many more which neither can be reduced 
by a gradual Mortification nor cut short by 
sudden Death. One reason for this is that to 
tamper with these correspondences might in- 
volve injury to closely related vital parts. Or, 
again, there are organs which are really essen- 
tial to the normal life of the organism, and 
w^hich therefore the organism cannot afford to 
lose even though at times they act prejudi- 
cially. Not a few correspondences, for instance, 
are not wrong in themselves but only in their 
extremes. Up to a certain point they are law- 
ful and necessary ; beyond that point they may 
become not only unnecessary but sinful. The 
appropriate treatment in these and similar 
cases consists in a process of Limitation. The 
performance of this operation, it must be con- 



196 FORTIFICATION. 

fessed, requires a most delicate hand. It is 
an art, moreover, which no one can teach 
another. And yet, if it is not learned by all 
who are trying to lead the Christian life, it 
cannot be for want of practice. For, as we 
shall see, the Christian is called upon to exer- 
cise few things more frequently. 

An easy illustration of a correspondence 
which is only wrong when carried to an ex- 
treme, is the love of money. The love of 
money up to a certain point is a necessity ; 
beyond that it may become one of the worst 
of sins. Christ said : " Ye cannot serve God 
and Mammon." The two services, at a definite 
point, become incompatible, and hence corre- 
spondence with one must cease. At what point, 
however, it must cease each man has to de- 
termine for himself. And in this consists at 
once the difficulty and the dignity of Limita- 
tion. 

There is another class of cases where the 
adjustments are still more difficult to deter- 
mine. Innumerable points exist in our sur- 
roundings with which it is perfectly legitimate 
to enjoy, and even to cultivate, correspondence, 
but which privilege, at the same time, it were 
better on the whole that we did not use. Cir- 
cumstances are occasionally such — the de- 
mands of others upon us, for example, may be 
so clamant — that we have voluntarily to reduce 
the area of legitimate pleasure. Or, instead 
of it coming from others, the claim may come 
from a still higher direction. Man's spiritual 
life consists in the number and fulness of his 



MOB TIFICA TION, 1 97 

correspondences with God. In order to de- 
velop these he may be constrained to insulate 
them, to enclose them from the other corre- 
spondences, to shut himself m with them. In 
many ways the limitation of the natural life is 
the necessary condition of the full enjoyment 
of the spiritual life. 

In this principle lies the true philosophy of 
self-denial. No man is called to a life of self- 
denial for its own sake. It is in order to a 
compensation which, though sometimes diffi- 
cult to see, is always real and always propor- 
tionate. No truth, perhaps, in practical I'C-. 
ligion is more lost sight of. We ciierish some- 
how a lingering rebelhon against the doctrine 
of self-denial — as if our nature, or our circum- 
stances, or our conscience, dealt with us 
severely in loading us with the daily cross. 
But is it not plain after all that the life of self- 
denial is the more abundant life — more abun- 
dant just in proportion to the ampler 
crucifixion of the narrower life ? Is it not a 
clear case of exchange — an exchange however 
where the advantage is entirely on our side ? 
We give up a correspondence in which there 
is a little life to enjoy a correspondence in 
which there is an abundant life. What though 
we sacrifice a hundred such correspondences ? 
We make but the more room for the great one 
that is left. The lesson of self-denial, that is 
to say of Limitation, is concerttration. Do not 
spoil your life, it says, Jit the outset with un- 
worthy and impoverishing correspondences ; 
and if it is growing truly rich and abundant, 



198 MOUTIFICATION. 

be very jealous of ever diluting its high eternal 
quality with anything of earth. To concentrate 
upon a few great correspondences, to oppose 
to the death the perpetual petty larceny of our 
life by trifles — tliese are the conditions for the 
highest and happiest life. It is only Limita- 
tion which can secure the Ilhmitable. 

■'J'lie penalty of evading self-denial also is 
just that we get tlie lesser instead of the larger 
good. The punishment of sin is inseparably 
bound up with itself. To refuse to deny one's 
self is just to be left with the self unclenied. 
When the balance of life is struck, the self will 
be found still there. The discipline of life was 
meant to destroy this self, but that discipline 
having been evaded — and we all to some extent 
have opportunities, and too often exercise them, 
of taking the narrow path by the shortest cuts 
— its purpose is balked. But the soul is the 
loser. In seeking to gain its life it has really 
lost it. This is what Christ meant when He 
said : " He that loveth his life shall lose it, and 
he that hateth his life in this world shall keep 
it unto life eterni^l.'"' 

Why does Christ say : " Hate Life " ? Does 
He mean that life is a sin ? Xo. Life is not a 
sin. Still, He says we must hate it. But we 
must live. Why should we hate what we 
must do ? For this reason. Life is not a sin, 
but the love of life may be a sin. And the best 
way not to love life is to hate it. Is it a sin 
then to love life ? Not a sin exactly, but a 
mistake. It is a sin to love some life, a mis- 
take to love the rest. Because that love is 



MOBTIFICATION. 199 

lost. All that is lavished on it is lost. Christ 
does not say it is wrong to love life. He simply 
says it is loss. Each man has only a certain 
aniount of life, of time, of attention — a definite 
measurable quantity. If he gives any of it to 
this life solely it is wasted. Therefore Christ 
says. Hate life, limit life, lest you steal your 
love for it from something that deserves it 
more. 

Now this does not apply to all life. It is 
*" life in this world " that is to be hated. For 
life in this world implies conformity to this 
world. It may not mean pursuing worldly 
/easures, or mixing Avith worldly sets ; but 
.a subtler thing than that — a silent deference to 
worldly opinion ; an almost unconscious lower- 
ing of religious tone to the level of the worldly 
religious world around ; a subdued resistance 
to the soul's delicate promptings to greater 
consecration, out of deference to "breadth" or 
fear of ridicule. These, and such things, are 
what Christ tells us we must hate. For these 
things are of the very essence of worldliness. 
" If any man love the world," even in this sense, 
•" the love of the Father is not in him." 

There are two ways of hating life, a true and 
a false. Some men hate life because it hates 
them. They have seen through it, and it has 
turned round upon them. They have drunk 
it, and came to the dregs ; therefore they hate 
it. This is one of the ways in which the man 
who loves his life literally loses it. He loves 
it till he loses it, then he hates it because it 
has fooled him. The other way is the religious. 



200 MOE TIFICA TION, 

For religious reasons a man deliberately braces 
himself to the systematic hating of his life. 
" No man can serve two masters, for either he 
must hate the one and love the other, or else 
he must hold to the one and despise the other." 
Despising the other — this is hating life, limit- 
ing life. It is not misanthropy, but Chris- 
tianity. 

This principle, as has been said, contains the 
true philosophy of self-denial. It also holds 
the secret by which self-denial may be most 
easily borne. A common conception of self- 
denial is that there are a multitude of things 
about life which are to be put down with a 
high hand the moment they make their appear- 
ance. They are temptations which are not to 
be tolerated, but must be instantly crushed 
out of being with pang and effort. 

So life comes to be a constant and sore cut- 
ting off of things which we love as our right 
hand. But now suppose one tried boldly to 
hate these things? Suppose we deliberately 
made up our minds as to what things we were 
henceforth to allow to become our life? Sup- 
pose we selected a given area of our environ- 
ment and determined once for all that our cor- 
respondences should go to that alone, fencing 
in this area all round with a morally impassa- 
ble wall? True, to others, we should seem to 
live a poorer life ; they would see that our en- 
vironment was circumscribed, and call us nar- 
row because it was narrow. But, well-chosen, 
this limited life would be really the fullest life ; 
it would be rich in the highest and worthiest, 



MOBTIFICATION. 201 

and poor in the smallest and basest correspond- 
ences. The well-defined spiritual life is not 
only the highest life, but it is also the most 
easily lived. The whole cross is more easily 
carried than the half. It is the man who tries 
to make the best of both worlds who makes 
nothing of either. And he who seeks to serve 
two masters misses the benediction of both. 
But he who has taken his stand, who has 
drawn a boundary line, sharp and deep about 
his religious life, who has marked off all be- 
yond as forever forbidden ground to him, finds 
the yoke easy and the burden light. For this 
forbidden environment comes to be as if it 
were not. His faculties falling out of corre- 
spondence, slowly lose their sensibilities. And 
the balm of Death numbing his lower nature 
releases him for the scarce disturbed com- 
munion of a higher life. So even here to die 
is gain. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 



** Supposing that man, in some form, is permitted 
to remain on the earth for a long series of years, we 
merely lengthen out the period, but we cannot escape 
the final catastrophe. The earth will gradually lose its 
energy of rotation, as well as that of revolution round 
the sun. The sun himself will wax dim and become 
useless as a source of energy, until at last the favor- 
able condition of the present solar system will have 
quite disappeared. 

*' But what happens to our system will happen like- 
wise to the whole visible universe, which will, if finite, 
become a lifeless mass, if indeed it be not doomed to 
utter dissolution. In fine, it will become old and effete, 
no less truly than the individual. It is a glorious gar- 
ment, this visible universe, but not an immortal one. 
We must look elsewhere if we are to be clothed with 
immortality as with a garment." 

The Unseen Universe. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 

*'This is Life Eternal--that they might know Thee 
the True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." 
— Jesus Christ. 

*' Perfect correspondence would be perfect life. Were 
there no changes in the environment but such as the 
organism had adapted changes to meet, and were it never 
to fail in the efficiency with which it met them, there 
would be eternal existence and eternal knowledge."-^ 
Herbert Spencer, 

One of the most startling achievements of 
recent science is a definition of Eternal Life. 
To the religious mind this is a contribution 
of immense moment. For eighteen hundred 
years only one definition of Life Eternal was 
before the world. Now there are two. 

Through all these centuries revealed religion 
had this doctrine to itself. Ethics had a voice, 
as well as Christianity, on the question of the 
summtim bonum ; Philosophy ventured to 
speculate on the Being of a God. But no 
source outside Christianity contributed any- 
thing to the doctrine of Eternal Life. Apart 
from Revelation, this great truth was un- 
guaranteed. It was the one thing in the Chris- 
tian system that most needed verification from 
without, yet none was forthcoming. And 
never has any further light been thrown upon 

205 



"206 ETERNAL LIFE. 

the question why in its very nature the Chris- 
tian Life should he Eternal. Christianity itself 
even upon this point has been obscure. Its 
decision upon the bare fact is authoritative 
and specific. But as to what there is in the 
Spiritual Life necessarily endowing it with the 
element of Eternity, the maturest theology is 
all but silent. 

It has been reserved for modern biology at 
once to defend and illuminate this central 
truth of the Christian faith. And hence hi 
the interests of religion, practical and eviden- 
tial, this second and- scientific definition of 
Eternal Life is to be hailed as an announcement 
of commanding interest. Why it should not 
yet have received the recognition of religious 
thinkers — for already it has lain some years 
unnoticed — is not difficult to understand. 1'he 
belief in Science as an aid to faith is not yet 
ripe enough to warrant men in searching there 
for witnesses to the highest Christian truths. 
The inspiration of Nature, it is thought, ex- 
tends to the humbler doctrines alone. And yet 
the reverent inquirei- who guides his steps in 
the right direction may find even now in the 
still dim twilight of the scientific world much 
that will illuminate and intensify his sublimest 
faith. Here, at least, comes, and comes unbid- 
den, the opportunity of testing the most vital 
point of the Christian system. Hitherto the 
Christian philosopher has remained content 
with the scientific evidence against Annihila- 
tion. Or, with Ihitler, he has reasoned from 
the Metamorphoses of Insects to a future life. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 207 

Or again, with the authors of " The Unseen 
Universe," the apologist has constructed elab- 
orate, and certainly impressive, arguments 
upon the Law of Continuity. But now we 
may draw nearer. For the first time Science 
touches Christianity positively on the doctrine 
of Immortality. It confronts us with an actual 
definition of an Eternal Life, based on a full 
and rigidly accurate examination of the neces- 
sary conditions. Science does not pretend 
that it can fulfil these conditions. Its votaries 
make no claim to possess the Eternal Life. It 
simply postulates the requisite conditions with- 
out concerning itself whether any organism 
should ever appear, or does now exist, which 
might fulfil them. The claim of religion, on 
the other hand, is that there are organisms 
which possess Eternal Life. And the problem 
for us to solve is this: Do those who profess 
to possess Eternal Life fulfil the conditions 
required by Science, or are they different con- 
ditions? in a word, Is the Christian concep- 
tion of Eternal Life scientific? 

It may be unnecessary to notice at the out- 
set that the definition of Eternal Life drawn 
lip by Science was framed without reference to 
religion. It must indeed have been the last 
thought with the thinker to whom we chiefly 
owe it, that in unfolding the conception of a 
Life in its very nature necessarily eternal, he 
was contributing to Theolog3^ 

Mr. Herbert Spencer — for it is to him we 
owe it^ — would be the first to admit the impar- 
tiality of his definition ; and from the connec- 



208 ETERNAL LIFE, 

tion in which it occurs in his writings, it is 
obvious that rehgion w^as not even preseiit to 
his mind. He is analyzing with minute care 
the relations between Environment and Life. 
He unfolds the principle according to which 
i.ife is high or low, long or short. He shows 
why organisms live and why they die. And 
jSlnall}'' he defines a condition of things in which 
an organism would never die — in which it 
would enjoy a perpetual and perfect Life. 
This to him is, of course, but a speculation. 
Life Eternal is a biological conceit. The condi- 
tions necessary to an Eternal Life do not exist 
in the natural world. So that the definition is 
altogether impartial and independent. A Per- 
fect Life, to Science, is simply a thing which is 
theoretically possible — like a Perfect Vacuum. 
Before giving, in so many words, the defini- 
tion of Mr. Herbert Spencer, it will render it 
fully intelligible if we gradually lead up to it 
by a brief rehearsal of the few and simple bi- 
ological facts on which it is based. In con- 
sidering the subject of Death, we have 
formerly seen that there are degrees of Life. 
By this is meant that some lives have more 
and fuller correspondence with Environment 
than others. The amount of correspondence, 
again, is determined by the greater or less 
complexity of the organism. Thus a simple 
organism like the Amoeba is possessed of very 
few correspondences. It is a mere sac of 
transparent structureless jelly for which 
organization has done almost nothing, and 
hence it can only communicate with the small- 



ETERNAL LIFE. 209 

est possible area of Environment. An in- 
sect, in virtue of its more complex structnre, 
corresponds with a wider area. Nature has 
endowed it with special faculties for reaching 
out to the Environment on many sides ; it has 
more life than the Amoeba. In other words, 
it is a higher animal. Man again, whose body- 
is still further differentiated, or broken up into 
different correspondences, finds himself en 
rapport with his surroundings to a further ex- 
tent. And therefore he is higher still, more 
living still. And this law, that the degree of 
Life varies with the degree of cori^espondence, 
holds to the minutest detail throughout the 
entire range of living things. Life becomes 
fuller and fuller, richer and richer, more 
and more sensitive and responsive to an ever- 
widening Environment as we rise in the chain 
of being. 

Now it will speedily appear that a distinct 
relation exists, and must exist, between com- 
plexity and longevity. Death being brought 
about by the failure of an organism to adjust 
itself to some change in tlie Environment, it 
follows that those organisms which are able to 
adjust themselves most readily and successfully 
will live the longest. They will continue time 
after time to effect the appropriate adjustment, 
and their power of doing so will be exactly 
proportionate to their complexity — that is, to 
the amount of Environment they can control 
with their correspondences. There are, for 
example, in the Environment of every animal 
certain things which are directly or indirectly 
14 



210 ETERNAL LIFE. 

dangerous to Life. If its equipment of corre- 
spondences is not complete enough to enable 
it to avoid these dangers hi all possible 
circumstances, it must sooner or later suc- 
cumb. The organism then with the most 
perfect set of correspondences, that is, the 
highest and most complex organism, has an 
obvious advantage over less complex forms. 
It can adjust itself more perfectly and fre- 
quently. But this is just the biological way 
of saying that it can live the longest. And 
hence the relation between complexity and 
longevity may be expressed thus — the most 
complex organisms are the longest lived. 

To state and illustrate the proposition con- 
versely may make the point still further clear. 
The less highly organized an animal is, the less 
will be its chance of remaining in lengthened 
correspondence with its environment. At 
some time or other in its career circumstances 
are sure to occur to which the comparatively 
immobile organism finds itself structurally 
unable to respond. Thus a Medusa tossed 
ashore by a wave, finds itself so out of corre- 
spondence with its new surroundings that 
its life must pay the forfeit. Had it been able 
by internal change to adapt itself to external 
change — to correspond sufficiently with the 
new environment, as for example to crawl, as 
an eel would have done, back into that environ- 
ment with which it had completer correspond- 
ence — its life might have been spared. But 
had this happened it would continue to live 
henceforth only so long as it could contmue 



ETEBNAL LIFE. 211 

in correspondence with all the circumstances 
in which it might find itself. Even if, how- 
ever, it became complex enough to resist the 
ordinary and direct dangers of its environ- 
ment, it might still be out of correspondence 
with others. A naturalist, for instance, might 
take advantage of its want of correspondence 
with particular sights and sounds to capture 
it for his cabinet, or the sudden dropping of a 
yacht's anchor or the turn of a screw might 
cause its untimely death. 

Again, in the case of a bird, in virtue of its 
more complex organization, there is command 
over a much larger area of environment. It 
can take precautions such as the Medusa could 
not; it has increased facilities for securing 
food ; its adjustments all round are more com- 
plex ; and therefore it ought to be able to main- 
tain its Life for a longer period. There is still 
a large area, however, over which it has no 
control. Its power of internal change is not 
complete enough to afford it perfect corre- 
spondence with all external changes, and its 
tenure of life is to that extent insecure. Its 
correspondence, moreover, is limited even with 
regard to those external conditions with which 
it has been partially established. Thus a bird 
in ordinary circumstances has no difficulty in 
adapting itself to changes of temperature, but 
if these are varied beyond the point at which 
its capacity of adjustment begins to fail — for 
example, during an extreme winter — the or- 
ganism being unable to meet the condition 
must perish. The human organism, on the 



212 ETERNAL LIFE, 

other hand, can respond to this external con- 
dition, as well as to countless other vicissitudes 
under which lower forms would inevitably 
succumb. Man's adjustments are to the larg- 
est known area of Environment, and hence he 
ought to be able furthest to prolong his Life. 

It becomes evident, then, that as we ascend 
in the scale of Life we rise also in the scale of 
longevit}^ The lowest organisms are, as a 
rule, short-lived, and the rate of mortality di- 
minishes more or less regularly as we ascend in 
the animal scale. So extraordinary indeed is 
the mortality among lowly-organized forms 
that in most cases a compensation is actually 
provided, nature endowing them with a mar- 
vellously increased fertility in order to guard 
against absolute extinction. Almost all lower 
forms are furnished not only with great re- 
productive powers, but with different methods 
of propagation, by which, in various circum- 
stances, and in an incredibly short time, the 
species can be indefinitely multiplied. Ehren- 
berg found that by the repeated subdivisions of 
a single JPara7necium^ no fewer than 268,000,- 
000 similar organisms might be produced in 
one month. This power steadily decreases as 
w^e rise higher in the scale, until forms are 
reached in which one, tw^o, or at most three, 
come into being at a birth. It decreases, how- 
ever, because it is no longer needed. These 
forms have a much longer lease of Life. And 
it may be taken as a rule, although it has ex- 
ceptions, that complexity in animal organisms 
is always associated with longevity. 



ETERNAL LIFE. • 213 

It may be objected that these illustrations 
are taken merely from morbid conditions. But 
whether the Life be cut short by accident or 
by disease the principle is the same. All dis- 
solution is brought about practically in the same 
way. A certain condition in the Environ- 
ment fails to be met by a corresponding con- 
dition in the organism, and this is death. And 
conversely the more an organism in virtue of 
its complexity can adapt itself to all the parts 
of its Environment, the longer it will live. 
"It is manifest a priori^'''* says Mr. Herbert 
Spencer. " that since changes in the physical 
state of the environment, as also those mechan- 
ical actions and those variations of available 
food which occur in it, are liable to stop the 
processes going on in the organism ; and since 
the adaptive changes in the organism have the 
effects of diiiectly or indirectly counterbalanc- 
ing these changes in the environment, it fol- 
lows that the life of the organism will be short 
or long, low or high, according to the extent 
to which changes in the environment are met 
by corresponding changes in the organism. 
Allowing a margin for perturbations, the life 
will continue only while the correspondence 
continues ; the completeness of the life will 
be proportionate to the completeness of 
the correspondence; and the life will be 
perfect only when the correspondence is 
perfect." ^ ^ 

We are now all but in sight of our scientific 



1 1' 



Principles of Biology," p. 82. 



214 ETERNAL LIFE. 

definition of Eternal Life. The desideratun) 
is an organism with a correspondence of a very 
exceptional kind. It must lie beyond the 
reach of those " mechanical actions " and those 
'' variations of available food," v^hich are 
" liable to stop the processes going on in the 
organism." Before we reach an Eternal Life 
we must pass beyond that point at which all 
ordinary correspondences inevitably cease. 
We must find an organism so high and complex, 
that at some point in its development it shall 
have added a correspondence which organic 
death is powerless to arrest. We must in 
short pass beyond that finite region where the 
correspondences depend on evanescent and 
material media, and enter a further region 
whore the Environment corresponded with is 
itself Eternal. Such an Environment exists. 
The Environment of the Spiritual world is out- 
side tlie influence of these " mechanical actions," 
which sooner or later interrupt the processes 
going on in all finite org'anisms. If then we 
can find an organism which has established a 
correspondence with the spiritual world, that 
correspondence will possess the elements of 
eternity — provided only one other condition be 
fulfilled. 

That condition is that the Environment be 
perfect. If it is not perfeci, if it is not the 
highest, if it is endowed with the finite quality 
of change, there can be no guarantee that the 
Life of its correspondents will be eternal. 
Some change might occur in it which the 
correspondents had no adaptive changes to 



ETERNAL LIFE. 215 

meet, and Life would cease. But grant a 
spiritual organism in perfect correspondence 
with a perfect spiritual Environment, and the 
conditions necessary to Eternal Life are sa,tis- 
lied. 

The exact terms of Mr. Herbert Spencer's 
definition of Eternal Life may now be given. 
And it will be seen that they include essen- 
tially the conditions here laid down. " Perfect 
correspondence would be perfect life. Were 
there no changes in the environment but such 
as the organism had adapted changes to meet, 
and were it never to fail in the efficiency with 
which it met them, there would be eternal ex- 
istence and eternal knowledge." ^ Reserving 
the question as to the possible fulfilment of 
these conditions, let us turn for a moment to 
the definition of Eternal Life laid down by 
Christ. Let us place it alongside the defini- 
tion of Science, and mark the points of con- 
tact. Uninterrupted correspondence with a 
perfect Environment is Eternal Life according 
to Science. " This is Life Eternal," said Christ, 
" that they may know Thee, the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."^ Life 
Eternal is to know God. To know God is to 
" correspond" with God. To correspond with 
God is to correspond with a Perfect Environ- 
ment. And the organism which attains to this, 
in the nature of things must live forever. 
Here is " eternal existence and eternal knowl- 
edge." 

1 Principles of Biology," p. 88, 

2 John xvii. 



'216 ETERNAL LIFE. 

The main point of agreement between the 
scientilio and the religious definition is that 
Life consists in a peculiar and personal relation 
defined as a ''correspondence." This concep- 
tion, that Life consists in correspondences, has 
been so abundantly illustrated already that it 
is now unnecessary to discuss it further. All 
Life indeed consists essentially in correspond- 
ences with various Environments. The artist's 
life is a correspondence with art ; the musi- 
ciaii's with music. To cut them off from these 
Environments is in that relation to cut off 
their Life. To be cut off from all Environ- 
ment is death. To find a new Environment 
again and cultivate relation with it is to find 
a new Life. To Live is to correspond, and to 
correspond is to live. So much is true in 
Science. But it is also true in Religion. And 
it is of great importance to observe that to 
Religion also theconception of Life is a corre- 
spondence. No truth of Christianity has been 
more ignorantly or wilfully travestied than the 
doctrine of Lnmortality. The popular idea, in 
spite of a hundred protests, is that Eternal Life 
is to live forever. A single glance at the locus 
classicffs, might have made this error impossible 
There we are told that Life Eternal is not to 
live. This is Life Etei'nal — to litoic. And yet 
— and it is a notorious instance of the fact that 
men wiio are opposed to Religion will take their 
conception of its profoundest truths from mere 
vulgar perversions — this view still represents 
to many cultivated men the Scriptural doctrine 
of Eternal Life. From time to time the taunt 



ETEBNAL LIFE, 217 

is thrown at Religion, not unseldom from lips 
which Science onght to have taught more cau- 
tion, that the Future Life of Christianity is 
simply a prolonged existence, an eternal mo- 
notony, a blind and indefinite continuance of 
being. The Bible never could commit itself to 
any such empty platitude ; nor could Chris- 
tianity ever offer to the world a hope so color- 
less. Not that Eternal Life has nothing to do 
with everlastingness. That is part of the con- 
ception. And it is this aspect of the question 
that first arrests us in the field of Science. 
But even Science has more in its definition 
than longevity. It has a correspondence and 
an Environment ; and. although it cannot fill up 
these terms for Religion, it can indicate at 
least the nature of the relation, the kind of 
thing that is meant by Life. Science speaks 
to us indeed of much more than numbers of 
years. It defines degrees of Life. It explains 
a widening Environment. It unfolds the re- 
lation between a widening Environment and 
increasing complexity in organisms. And if 
it has no absolute contribution to the content of 
Religion its analogies are not limited to a 
point. It yields to Immortality, and this is the 
most that Science can do in anj^ case, the 
broad framework for a doctrine. 

The further definition, moreover, of this 
correspondence as knowing is in the highest 
degree significant. Is not this the precise 
quality in an Eternal correspondence which the 
analogies of Science w^ould prepare us to look 



218 ETERNAL LIFE. 

for? Longevity is associated with complexity. 
And complexity in organisms is manifested by 
the successive addition of correspondences, 
each richer and larger than those which have 
gone before. The differentiation, therefoie, of 
the spiritaal organism ought to be signalized 
by the addition of the highest possible corre- 
spondence. It is not essential to the idea that 
the correspondence should be altogether novel ; 
it is necessary rather that it should not. An 
altogether new correspondence appearing sud- 
denly without shadow or proj^hecy would be 
a violation of continuity. Wbat we should 
expect" would be something new, and yet 
something that we were already prepared for. 
We should look for a further development in 
harmony with currejit developments; the 
extension of the last and highest correspond- 
ence in a new and higher direction. And 
this is exactly Avhat we have. In the woild 
with which biology deals, Evolution culminates 
in Knowledge. 

At whatever point in the zoological scale 
this correspondeiice, or set of correspondences, 
begins, it is certain there is nothing higher. 
In its stunted infancy merely, Avhen we meet 
with its rudest beginnings in animal intelli- 
gence, it is a thing so Avonderful, as to strike 
every thoughtful and reverent observer with 
awe. Even among the invertebrates so mar- 
vellously are these or kindred powers dis- 
played, that naturalists do not hesitate now, 
on the ground of intelligence at least, to clas- 



ETERNAL LIFE. 219 

6ify some of the humblest creatures next 
to man himself. ^ Nothing in nature, indeed, 
is so unlike the rest of nature, so prophetic of 
what is beyond it, so supernatural. And as 
manifested in Man who crowns creation with 
his all-embracing consciousness, there is but 
one word to describe his knowledge : it is Di- 
vine. If then from this point there is to be 
any further Evolution, this surely must be the 
correspondence in which it shall take place ? 
This correspondence is great enough to de- 
mand development ; and yet it is little enough 
to need it. The magnificence of what it has 
achieved relatively, is the pledge of the possi- 
bility of more ; the insignificance of its con- 
quest absolutely involves the probability of 
still richer triumphs. If anything, in short, in 
humanity is to go on it must be this. Other 
correspondences may continue likewise ; others, 
again, we can well afford to leave behind. 
But this cannot cease. This correspondence 
— or this set of correspondences, for it is very 
complex — is it not that to which men with one 
consent would attach Eternal Life ? Is there 
anything else to which they would attach it? 
Is anything better conceivable, anything 
worthier, fuller, nobler, anything which would 
represent a higher form of Evolution or offer a 
more perfect ideal for an Eternal Life ? 

But these are questions of quality ; and the 
moment we pass from quantity to quality we 
leave Science behind. In the vocabulary of 

1 Yide Sir John Lubbock's *' Ants, Bees, and Wasps." 
pp. 1-181. 



220 ETERNAL LIFE, 

Science, Eternity is only the fraction of a 
word. It means mere everlastingness. To 
Religion, on the other hand, Eternity has little 
to do with time. To correspond with the God 
of Science, the Eternal Unknowable, would be 
everlasting existence ; to correspond with " the 
true God and Jesus Christ," is Eternal Life. 
The quality of the Eternal Life alone makes 
the heaven ; mere everlastingness might be no 
boon. Even the brief span of the temporal 
life is too long for those who spend its years 
in sorrow. Time itself, let alone Eternity, is 
all but excruciating to Doubt. And many be- 
sides Schopenhauer have secretl}^ regarded 
consciousness as the hideous mistake and mal- 
ady of Nature. Therefore we must not only 
have quantity of years, to speak in the lan- 
guage of the present, but quality of corre- 
spondence. When we leave Science behind, 
this correspondence also receives a higher 
name. It becomes communion. Other names 
there are for it, religious and theological. It 
may be included in a general expression. Faith ; 
or we may call it by a personal and specific 
term. Love. For the knowing of a Whole so 
great involves the co-operation of many parts. 
Communion with God — can it be demon- 
strated in terms of Science that this is a 
correspondence which will never break? We 
do not appeal to Science for such a testimony. 
We have asked for its conception of an Eternal 
Life ; and we have received for answer that 
Eternal Life would consist in a correspondence 
which should never cease, with an Environ- 



ETERNAL LIFE. 221 

ment which should never pass away. And yet 
what would Science demand of a perfect corre- 
spondence that is not met by this, the knowing of 
God? There is no other correspondence which 
could satisfy one at least of the conditions. 
Not one could be named which would not bear 
on the face of it the mark and pledge of its 
mortality. But this, to know God, stands alone. 
To know God, to be linked with God, to be 
linked with Eternity — if this is not the 
"eternal existence " of biology what can more 
nearly approach it ? And yet we are still a 
great way off — to establish a communication 
with the Eternal is not to secure Eternal Life. 
It must be assumed that the communication 
could be sustained. And to assume this would 
be to beg the question. So that we have still 
to prove Eternal Life. But let it be again 
repeated, we are not here seeking proofs. We 
are seeking light. We are merely reconnoi- 
tring from the furthest promontory of Science if 
so be that through the haze we may discern 
the outline of a distant coast and come to some 
conclusion as to the possibility of landing. 

But, it may be replied, it is not open to any 
one handling the question of Immortality from 
the side of Science to remain neutral as to the 
question of fact. It is not enough to announce 
that he has no addition to make to the positive 
argument. This may be permitted with ref- 
erence to other points of contact between 
Science and Religion, but not with this. We 
are told this question is set^ed — that there 
is no positive side. Science meets the entire 



222 ETERNAL LIFE, 

conception of immortality with a direct 
negative. In the face of a powerful concensus 
against even the possibility of a Future Life, 
to content oneself witli saying that Science 
pretended to no argument in favor of it would 
be at once impertinent and dishonest. We 
must therefore devote ourselves for a moment 
to the question of possibility. 

The problem is, with a material body and a 
mental organization inseparably connected 
with it, to bridge the grave. Emotion, volition, 
thought itself, are functions of the brain. 
When the brain is impaired, they are impaired. 
When the brain is not, they are not. Every- 
thing ceases with the dissolution of the material 
fabric ; muscular activity and mental activity 
perish alike. With the pronounced positive 
statements on this point from many depart- 
ments of modern Science w^e are all famiUar. 
The fatal verdict is recorded by a hundred 
hands and with scarcely a shadow of qualifi- 
cation. " Unprejudiced x)hilosophy is com- 
pelled to reject the id^a of an individual im- 
mortality and of a personal continuance after 
death. With the decay and dissolution of its 
material substratum, through which alone it 
has acquired a conscious existence and become 
a person, and upon which it was dependent, 
the spirit must cease to exist." ^ To the same 
effect Vogt : " Physiology decides definitely 
and categorically against individual immor- 
tality, as against any special existence of the 

1 Biichner : '' Force and Matter," 3d Ed. p. 232. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 223 

soul. The soul does not enter the foetus like 
the evil spirit into persons possessed, but is a 
product of the development of the brain, just 
as muscular activity is a product of muscular 
development, and secretion a product of gland- 
ular development." After a careful review of 
the position of recent Science with regard to the 
whole doctrine, Mr. Graham sums up thus : 
'' Such is the argument of Science, seemingly de- 
cisive against a future life. As we listen to her 
array of syllogisms, our hearts die within us. 
The hopes of men, placed in one scale to be 
weighed, seem to fly up against the massive 
weight of her evidence, placed in the other. 
It seems as if all our arguments were vain and 
unsubstantial, as if our future expectations 
were the foolish dreams of children, as if there 
could not be any other possible verdict arrived 
at upon the evidence brought forward." ^ 

Can we go on in the teeth of so real an 
obstruction ? Has not our own weapon turned 
against us, Science abolishing with authorita- 
tive hand the very truth we are asking it to 
define ? 

What the philosopher has to throw into the 
other scale can be easily indicated. Generally 
speaking, he demurs to the dogmatism of the 
conclusion. That mind and brain react, that 
the mental and the physiological processes are 
related, and very intimately related, is beyond 
controversy. But how they are related, he 
submits, is still altogether unknown. The 

1 " The Creed of Science," p. 169. 



224 ETERNAL LIFE. 

correlation of mind and brain do not involve 
their identity. And not a few authorities 
accordingly have consistently hesitated to draw 
any conclusion at all. Even Btlchner's state- 
ment turns out, on close examination, to be ten- 
tative in the extreme. In prefacing his chapter 
on Personal Continuance, after a single sen- 
tence on the dependence of the soul and its 
manifestations upon a material substratum, he 
remarks, " Though we are unable to form a 
definite idea as to the hoic of this connection, 
we are still by these facts justified in asserting, 
that the mode of this connection renders it ap- 
'parently impossible that they should continue to 
exist separately." ^ There is, therefore, a flaw 
at this point in the argument for materialism. 
It may not help the spiritualist in the least de- 
gree positively. He may be as far as ever from 
a theory of how consciousness could continue 
without the material tissue. But his contention 
secures for him the right of speculation. The 
path beyond may lie in hopeless gloom ; but it 
is not barred. He may bring forward his 
theory if he will. And this is something. For 
a permission to go on is often the most that 
Science can grant to Religion. 

Men have taken advantage of this loophole 
in various ways. And though it cannot be 
said that these speculations offer us more than^ 
a probability, this is still enough to combine' 
with the deep-seated expectation in the bosom 
of mankind and give fresh lustre to the hope 
of a future life. Whether we find relief in the 

1 " Force and Matter/' p. 231. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 225 

theory of a simple dualism; whether with 
Ulrici we further define the soul as an invisible 
enswathement of the body, material yet non- 
atomic ; whether, with the " Unseen Universe." 
we are helped by the spectacle of known forms 
of matter shading off into an ever-growing 
subtilty, mobility, and immateriality; or 
whether, with Wundt, we regard the soul as 
" the ordered unity of many elements," it is 
certain that shapes can be given to the con- 
ception of a correspondence which shall bridge 
the grave such as to satisfy minds too much 
accustomed to weigh evidence to put them-^ 
selves off with fancies. 

But whether the possibilities of physiology 
or the theories of philosophy do or do not sub- 
stantially assist us in realizing Immortality, 
is to Rehgion, to Religion at least regarded 
from the present point of view, of inferior 
moment. The fact of Immortality rests for us 
on a different basis. Probably, indeed, after 
all the Christian philosopher never engaged 
himself in a more superfluous task than in 
seeking along physiological lines to find room 
for a soul. The theory of Christianity has 
only to be fairly stated to make manifest its 
thorough independence of all the usual specu- 
lations on Immortality. The theory is not 
that thought, volition, or emotion, as such are 
to survive the grave. The difficulty of hold- 
ing a doctrine in this form, in spite of what 
has been advanced to the contrary, in spite of 
the hopes and wislies of mankind, in spite of 
all the scientific and philosophical attempts to 
15 



226 ETERNAL LIFE. 

make it tenable, is still profound. Xo secular 
■theory of personal continuance, as even Butler 
acknowledged, does not equally demand tlie 
eternity of the brute. No secular theory de- 
tines the point in the cliain of Evolution at 
which oro'anisms became endowed with Im- 
mortality. Xo secular theory explains the 
condition of the endowment, nor indicates its 
goal. And if we have notliing more to fan 
hope than the unexplored mystery of the whole 
region, or tlie unknown remainders among 
the potencies of Life, then, as those who have 
"hope only in this world,'' we are " of all men 
the most miserable." 

When we turn, on the other hand, to the 
doctrine as it came from the lips of Christ, we 
find ourselves in an entirely different region. 
He makes no attempt to project the material 
into the immaterial. The old elements, how- 
ever refined and subtile as to their matter, are 
not in themselves to inherit the Kingdom of 
God. That Avhich is flesh is flesh. Instead of 
attaching Immortality to the natural organism, 
He introduces a new and original factor which 
none of the secular, and few even of the theo- 
logical theories, seem to take sufficiently into 
account. To Christianity, " he tliat hath the 
Son of God hath Life, and he that hath not the 
Son hath not Life." This, as we take it, de- 
fines the correspondence which is to bridge the 
grave. This is the clue to the nature of tlie 
Life that lies at the back of the spiritual 
organism. And this is the true solution of 
the mystery of Eternal Life. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 227 

There lies a something at the back of the 
correspondences of the spiritual organisms — 
just as there lies a something at the back of 
the natural correspondences. To say that Life 
is a correspondence is only to express the par- 
tial truth. There is something behind. Life 
manifests itself in correspondences. But what 
determines them? The organism exhibits a 
variety of correspondences. What organizes 
them ? As in the natural, so in the spiritual, 
there is a Principle of Life. We cannot get 
rid of that term. However clumsy, however 
provisional, however much a mere cloak for 
ignorance, Science as yet is unable to dispense 
with the idea of a Principle of Life. We 
must work with the word till we get a better. 
Now that which determines the coi'respondence 
of the spiritual organism is a Principle of 
Spiritual Life. It is a new and Divine Posses- 
sion. He that hath the Son hath Life; con- 
versely, he that hath Life hath the Son. And 
this indicates at once the quality and the 
quantity of the correspondence which is to 
bridge the grave. He that hath Life hath the 
Son. He possesses the Spirit of a son. That 
spirit is, so to speak, organized within him by 
the Son. It is the manifestation of the new 
nature — of which more anon. The fact to 
.note at present is that this is not an organic 
correspondence, but a spiritual correspondence. 
It comes not from generation, but from re- 
generation. The relation between the spirit- 
ual man and his Environment is in theological 
language, a filial relation. With the new 



228 ETERNAL LIFE, 

Spirit, the filial correspondence, lie knows the 
Father — and this is Life Eternal. This is not 
only the real relation, but the only possible 
relation: "Neither knoweth any man the 
Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever 
the Son will reveal Him." And this on purely 
natural grounds. It takes the Divine to know 
the Divine — but in no more mysterious sense 
than it takes the human to understand the 
human. The analogy, indeed, for the whole 
field here has been finely expressed already by 
Paul : " What man," he asks, " knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man which 
is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth 
no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we liave 
received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
Spirit which is of God; that we might know 
the things that are freely given to us of God." ^ 
It were idle, such being the quality of the 
new relation, to add that this also contains 
the guarantee of its eternity. Here at last is 
a correspondence which will never cease. Its 
powers in bridging the grave have been tried. 
The correspondence of the spiritual man pos- 
sesses the supernatural virtues of the Resurrec- 
tion and the Life. It is known by former ex- 
periment to have survived the "clianges in 
the physical state of the environment," and 
those " mechanical actions " and " variations of 
available food," which Mr. Herbert Spencer 
tells us are " liable to stop the i^rocesses going 
on in the organism." In short, this is a cor- 
respondence which at once satisfies the de- 

1 1 Cor. ii. 11, 12. 



ETERNAL LIEE, 229 

mands of Science and Religion. In mere 
quantity it is different from every otlaer cor- 
respondence known. Setting aside everytliing 
else in Religion, everything adventitious, local 
and provisional ; dissecting in to the bone and 
marrow we find this — a correspondence which 
can never break with an Environment which 
can never change. Here is a relation estab- 
lished with Eternity. The passing years la}^ 
no limiting hand on it. Corruption injures 
it not. It survives Death. It, and it only, 
will stretch beyond the grave and be found 
inviolate — ■ 

*' When the moon is old, 
And the stars are cold, 
And the books of the Judgment-day unfold." 

The misgiving which will creep sometimes 
over the brightest faith has already received 
its expression and its rebuke : " AVho shall 
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or 
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" 
Shall these " changes in the physical state of 
the environment" which threaten death to the 
natural man destroy the spiritual ? Shall 
death, or life, or angels, or principalities, or 
powers, arrest or tamper with his eternal cor- 
respondences ? " Nay, in all these things we 
are more than conquerors through Him that 
loved us. For I am persuaded that neither 
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the 



230 ETERNAL LIFE, 

love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." 

It may seem an objection to some that the 
"perfect correspondence" should come to man 
in so extraordinary a way. Tlie earlier stages 
in the doctrine are promising enough ; they 
are entirely in line with Nature. And if 
Nature has also furnished the " perfect corre- 
spondence " demanded for an Eternal Life the 
position might be unassailable. But this sud- 
den reference to a something outside the 
natural Environment destroys the continuity, 
and discovers a permanent weakness in the 
whole theory ? To which there is a twofold 
reply. In the first place, to go outside what 
we call Nature is not to go outside Environ- 
ment. Nature, the natural Environment, is 
only a part of Environment. There is another 
large part which, though some profess to have 
no correspondence with it, is not on that ac- 
count unreal, or even unnatural. The mental 
and moral world is unknown to the plant. But 
it is real. It cannot be affirmed either that it 
is unnatural to the plant ; although it might 
be said that from the point of view of the 
Vegetable Kingdom it was supernatural. 
Things are natural or supernatural simply ac- 
cording to where one stands. Man is super- 
natural to the mineral ; God is supernatural 
to the man. When a mineral is seized upon 
by the living plant and elevated to the organic 
kingdom, no trespass against Nature is com- 
mitted. It merely enters a larger Environ- 

1 Rom. viii. 35-39. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 231 

ment, which before was supernatural to it, 
but which now is entirely natural. When the 
heart of a man, again, is seized upon by the 
quickening Spirit of God, no further violence 
is done to natural law\ It is another case of 
the inorganic, so to speak, passing into the 
organic. 

But, in the second place, it is complained as 
if it were an enormity in itself that the spir- 
itual correspondence should be furnished from 
the spiritual world. And to this the answer 
lies in the same direction. Correspondence in 
any case is the gift of Environment. The 
natural Environment gives men their natural 
faculties; the spiritual affords them their 
spiritual faculties. It is natural for the spirit- 
ual Environment to supply the spiritual facul- 
ties ; it would be quite unnatural for the nat- 
ural Environment to do it. The natural law 
of Biogenesis forbids it; the moral fact that 
the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite is 
against it ; the spiritual principle that flesh 
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God 
renders it absurd. Not, however, that the 
spiritual faculties are, as it were, manufact- 
ured in the spiritual world and supplied ready- 
made to the spiritual organism — forced upon 
it as an external equipment. This certainly 
is not involved in sayihg that the spiritual 
faculties are furnished by the spiritual 
world. Organisms are not added to by accre- 
tion, as in the case of minerals, but by growth. 
And the spiritual faculties are organized in the 
spiritual protoplasm of the soul, just as other 



232 ETERNAL LIFE. 

faculties are organized in the protoplasm of 
the body. The plant is made of materials 
which have once been inorganic. An organiz- 
ing principle not belonging to their kingdom 
lays hold of them and elaborates them until 
they have correspondences with the kingdom 
to which the organizing principle belonged. 
Their original organizing principle, if it can be 
called by this name, was Crystallization ; so 
that we have now a distinctly foreign power 
organizing in totally new and higher directions. 
In the spiritual world, similarly, we find an 
organizing principle at work among the mate- 
rials of the organic kingdom, performing a fur- 
ther miracle, but not a dift'erent kind of mir- 
acle, producing organizations of a novel kind, 
but not by a novel method. The second pro- 
cess, in fact, is simply what an enlightened 
evolutionist would have expected from the 
first. It marks the natural and legitimate 
progress of the development. And this in the 
line of the true Evolution — not the linear 
Evolution, which would look for the develop- 
ment of the natural man through powers al- 
read}^ inherent, as if one were to look to Crys- 
tallization to accomplish the development of 
the mineral into the plant, — but that larger 
form of Evolution which includes among its 
factors the double L^tw of Biogenesis and the 
immense further truth that this involves. 

What is further included in this complex 
correspondence we shall have opportunity to 
illustrate afterwards." ^ Meantime let it be 

1 Vide " Conformity to Type, " page 279. 



ETERNAL LIFE, 233 

noted on what the Christian argument for Im- 
mortality really rests. It stands upon the 
pedestal on which the theologian rests the 
whole of historical Christianity — the Resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ. 

It ought to be placed in the forefront of all 
Christian teaching that Christ's mission on 
earth was to give men Life. " I am come," He 
said, "that ye might have Life, and that ye 
might have it more abundantly." And that 
He meant literal Life, literal spiritual and 
Eternal Life, is clear from the whole course of 
His teaching and acting. To impose a meta- 
phorical meaning on the commonest word of 
the New Testament is to violate every canon 
of interpretation, and at the same time to 
charge the greatest of teachers with persist- 
ently mystifying His hearers by an unusual 
use of so exact a vehicle for expressing definite 
thought as the Greek language, and that on 
the most momentous subject of which He ever 
spoke to men. It is a canon of interpreta- 
tion, according to Alford, that "a figurative 
sense of words is never admissible except 
when required by the context." The context, 
in most cases, is not only directly unfavorable 
to a figurative meaning, but in innumerable 
instances in Christ's teaching Life is broadly 
contrasted with Death. In the teaching of 
the apostles, again, we find that, without excep- 
tion, they accepted the term in its simple literal 
sense. Reuss defines the apostolic belief with 
his usual impartiality when — and the quota- 
tion is doubly pertinent here — he discovers in 



234 ETERNAL LIFE. 

the apostle's conception of Life, first, "the idea 
of a real existence, an existence such as is 
proper to God and to the Word ; an imperish- 
able existence — that is to say, not subject to 
the vicissitudes and imperfections of the finite 
world. This primary idea is repeatedly ex- 
pressed, at least in a negative form ; it leads 
to a doctrine of immortality, or, to speak more 
correctly, of life, far surpassing any that had 
been expressed in the formulas of the current 
philosophy or theology, and resting upon pre- 
mises and conceptions altogether clift'erent. 
In fact, it can dispense both with the philoso- 
phical thesis of the immateriality or indestruc- 
tibility of the human soul, and v/ith the theo- 
logical thesis of a miraculous corporeal recon- 
struction of our person ; thesis, the first of 
which is altogether foreign to the religion of 
the Bible, and the second absolutely opposed 
to reason." Second, " the idea of life, as it is 
conceived in this system, implies the idea of a 
power, an operation, a communication, since 
this life no longer remains, so to speak, latent 
or passive in God and in the Word, but 
through them reaches the believer. It is not 
a mental somnolent thing; it is not a plant 
without fruit ; it is a germ which is to find 
fullest development." ^ 

If we are asked to define more clearly what 
is meant by this mysterious endowment of 
Life, we again hand over the difficulty to 
Science. When Science can define the Natural 

i " History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic 
Age," vol. ii. p. 496. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 235 

Life and the Physical Force we may hope for 
furtlier clearness on the nature and action of 
the Spiritual Powers. The effort to detect the 
living Spirit must be at least as idle as the at- 
tempt to subject protoplasm to microscopic 
examination in the hope of discovering Life. 
We are warned, also, not to expect too much. 
''Thou canst not tell whence it cometh or 
whither it goeth." This being its quality, 
when the Spiritual Life is discovered in the 
laboratory it will possibly be time to give it 
up altogether. It may say, as Socrates of his 
soul, "You may bury me — if you can catch 
me." 

Science never corroborates a spiritual truth 
without illuminating it. The threshold of 
Eternity is a place where many shadows meet. 
And the light of Science here, where every- 
thing is so dark, is welcome a thousand times. 
Many men would be religious if they knew 
where to begin ; many would be more religious 
if they were sure where it would end. It is 
not indifference that keeps some men from 
God, but ignorance. " Good Master, wh^t 
must I do to inherit Eternal Life?" is still 
the deepest question of the age. What is 
Religion ? What am I to believe ? What seek 
with all my heart and soul and mind ? — this is 
the imperious question sent up to conscious- 
ness from the depths of being in all earnest 
hours ; sent down again, alas, with many of 
us, time after time, unanswered. Into all our 
thought and work and reading this question 
pursues us. But the theories are rejected one 



286 ETEBNAL LIFE, 

by one ; the great books are returned sadly to 
their shelves, the years pass, and the problem 
remains unsolved. The confusion of tongues 
here is terrible. Every day a new author- 
ity announces himself. Poets, philosophers, 
preachers try their hand on us in turn. New 
prophets arise, and beseech us for our soul's 
sake to give ear to them — at last in an hour of 
inspiration they have discovered the final truth. 
Yet the doctrine of yesterday is challenged by 
a fresh philosophy to-day ; and the creed of to- 
day will fall in turn before the criticism of to- 
morrow. Increase of knoAvledge increasetli 
sori'ow. And at length the conflicting truths, 
like the beams of light in the laboratory ex- 
periment, couibine in the mind to make total 
darkness. 

But here are two outstandiiig nuthorities 
agreed — not men, not philosophers, not creeds. 
Here is the voice of God and the voice of 
Nature. I cannot be wrong if I listen to them. 
Sometimes when uncertain of a voice from its 
very loudness, we catch the missing syllable 
in the echo. Jn God and Natui'e we liave 
Voice and Echo. When I hear both, I am 
assured. My sense of hearing does not betray 
me twice. 1 recognize the Voice in the Echo, 
the Echo makes me cei'tain of the Voice ; I 
listen and I know. The question of a Future 
Life is a biological question. Nature may be 
silent on oth(^r pi'oblems of l^eligion ; but here 
she has a rigiit to speak. The whole confusion 
ai'onnd the doctrine of Eternal Life has arisen 
from making it a question of Philosophy. We 



ETERNAL LIFE. 237 

stall do ill to refuse a hearing to any specula- 
tion of Philosophy ; the ethical relations here 
especially are intimate and real. But in the 
first instance Eternal Life, as a question of 
Zife, is a problem for Biology. The soul is a 
living organism. And for any question as to 
the soul's Life we must appeal to Life-science. 
And what does the Life-science teach? That 
if I am to inherit Eternal Life, I must cultivate 
a correspondence with the Eternal. This is a 
simple proposition, for Nature is always simple. 
I take this proposition, and, leaving Nature, 
proceed to fill it in. I search everywhere for 
a clue to the Eternal. I ransack literature for 
a definition of a correspondence between man 
and God. Obviously that can only come from 
one source. And the analogies of Science per- 
mit us to apply to it. All knowledge lies in 
Environment. When I want to know about 
minerals I go to minerals. When I want to 
know about flowers I go to flowers. And they 
tell me. In their own way they speak to me, 
each in its own way, and each for itself — not 
the mineral for the flower, which is impossible, 
nor the flower for the mineral, which is also 
impossible. So if I want to know about Man, 
I go to his part of the Environment. And he 
tells me about himself, not as the plant or the 
mineral, for he is neither, but in his own way. 
And if I want to know about God, I go to his 
part of the Environment. And He tells me 
about Himself, not as a Man, for He is not Man, 
but in His own way. And just as naturally 
as the flower and the mineral and the Man, 



238 ETERNAL LIFE. 

each in their own way, tell me about then> 
selves, He tells me about Himself. He very 
iStrangely condescends indeed in making things 
plain to me, actually assuming for a time the 
Form of a Man that I at my poor level may 
better see Him. This is my opportunity to 
know Him. This incarnation is God making 
Himself accessible to human thought — God 
opening to man the possibility of correspond- 
ence through Jesus Christ. And this corre- 
spondence and this Environment are those I 
seek. He Himself assures me, " This is Life 
Eternal, that they might know Thee, the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast 
sent." Do I not now discern the deeper mean- 
ing in " Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent " f 
Do I not better understand with what vision 
and rapture the profoundest of the disciples 
exclaims, " The Son of God is come, and hath 
given us an understanding that we might know 
Him that is true" ?i 

Having opened correspondence with the 
Eternal Environment, the subsequent stages 
are in the line of all other normal develop- 
ment. We have but to continue, to deepen, 
to extend, and to enrich the correspondence 
that has been begun. And we shall soon find 
to our surprise that this is accompanied by 
another and parallel process. The action is 
not all upon our side. The Environment also 
will be found to correspond. The influence of 
Environment is one of the greatest and most 
substantial of modern biological doctrines. 
Of the power of Environment to form or 



ETEBNAL LIFE. 239 

transform organisms, of its ability to develop 
or suppress function, of its potency in deter- 
mining growth, and generally of its immense 
influence in Evolution, there is no need now 
to speak. But Environment is now acknowl- 
edged to be one of the most potent factors in 
the Evolution of Life. The influence of En- 
vironment too seems to increase rather than 
diminish as we approach the higher forms of 
being. The highest forms are the most 
mobile; their capacity of change is the 
greatest ; they are, in short, most easily acted 
on by Environment. And not only are the 
highest organisms the most mobile, but the 
highest parts of the highest organisms are 
more mobile than the lower. Environment 
can do little, comparatively, in the direction of 
inducing variation in the body of a child ; but 
how plastic is its mind ! How infinitely 
sensitive is its soul ! How infallibly can it be 
turned to music or to dissonance by the moral 
harmony or discord of its outward lot ! How 
decisively indeed are we not all formed 
and moulded, made or unmade, by external 
circumstance ! Might we not all confess with 
Ulysses, — 

** I am a part of all that I have met " ? 

Much more, then, shall we look for the in- 
fluence of Environment on the spiritual nature 
of him who has opened correspondence with 
God. Reaching out his eager and quickened 
faculties to the spiritual world around him, 
shall he not become spiritual ? In vital con- 



240 ETERNAL LIFE, 

tact with Holiness, shall he not become holy ? 
Breathing' now an atmosphere of ineffable 
Purity, shall he miss becoming pure ? Walk- 
ing with God from day to day shall he fail to 
be taught of God ? 

Growth in grace is sometimes described as 
a strange, mystical, and unintelligible process. 
It is mystical, but neither strange nor unin- 
telligible. It proceeds according to Natural 
Law, and the leading factor in sanctihcation is 
Influence of Environment. The possibility of 
it depends upon the mobility of the organism ; 
the result, on the extent and frequency of 
certain correspondences. These facts insensi- 
bly lead on to a further suggestion. Is it not 
possible that these biological truths may carry 
with them the clue to a still profounder phi- 
losophy — even that of Regeneration ? 

Evolutionists tell us that by the influence of 
environment certain aquatic animals have be- 
come adapted to a terrestrial mode of life. 
Breathing normally by gills, as the result and 
reward of a continued effort carried on from 
generation to generation to inspire the air of 
heaven direct, they have slowly acquired the 
lung-function. In the young organism, true 
to the ancestral type, the gill still persists — as 
in the tadpole of the common frog. But as 
maturity approaches the true lung appears ; 
the gill gradually transfers its task to the 
higher organ. It then becomes atrophied and 
disappears, and finally respiration in the adult 
is conducted by lungs alone.^ We may be far, 

1 Vide also the remarkable experiments of Friiulein v. 



ETERNAL LIFE. 241 

in the meantime, from saying that this is 
proved. It is for those who accept it to deny 
the justice of the spiritual analogy. Is relig- 
ion to them unscientific in its doctrine of Re- 
generation? Will the evolutionist v^ho admits 
the regeneration of the frog under the modify- 
ing influence of a continued correspondence 
with a new environment, care to question the 
possibility of the soul acquiring such a faculty 
as that of Prayer, the marvellous breathing- 
function of the new creature, when in contact 
with the atmosphere of a besetting God ? Is the 
change from the earthly to the heavenly mora 
mysterious than the change from tlie aquatic 
to the terrestrial mode of Life ? Is Evolution 
to stop with the organic? If it be objected 
that it has taken ages to perfect the function 
in the batrachian, the reply is, that it will take 
ages to perfect the function in the Christian. 
For every thousand years the natural evolu- 
tion will allow for the development of its 
organism, the Higher Biology will grant its 
product millions. We have indeed spoken of 
the spiritual correspondence as already perfect 
• — but it is perfect only as the bud is perfect. 
*' It doth not yet appear what it shall be," any 
more than it appeared a million years ago 
what the evolving batrachian would be. 

But to return. We have been dealing with 
the scientific aspects of communion with God. 
Insensibly, from quantity we have been led to 

Chauvin on the Transformation of the Mexican Axolotl 
into Amblystoms. — Weismann's "Studies in the Theory 
of Descent," vol. ii. pt. iii. 



242 ETERNAL LIFE. 

speak of quality. And enough has now been 
advanced to mdicate generally the nature of 
that correspondence with which is necessarily 
associated Eternal Life. There remains but 
one or two details to which we must lastly, 
and very briefly, address ourselves. 

The quality of everlastingness belongs, as 
we have seen, to a single correspondence, or 
rather to a single set of correspondences. But 
it is apparent that before this correspondence 
can take full and final effect a further process 
is necessary. By some means it must be sep- 
arated from all the other correspondences 
of the organism which do not share its pecul- 
iar quality. In this life it is restrained by 
these other correspondences. They may con- 
tribute to it, or hinder it; but they are 
essentially of a different order. They belong 
not to Eternity but to Time, and to this pres- 
ent world ; and, unless some provision is 
made for dealing with them, they will detain 
the aspiring organism in this present world till 
Time is ended. Of course, in a sense, all that 
belongs to Time belongs also to Eternity ; but 
these lower correspondences are in their nature 
unfitted for an Eternal Life. Even if they 
were perfect in their relation to their Environ- 
ment, they would still not be Eternal. 
However opposed, apparently, to the scientific 
definition of dEternal Life, it is yet true that 
perfect correspondence with Environment is 
not Eternal Life. A very important word in 
the complete definition is, in this sentence, 
omitted. On that word it has not been neces- 



ETERNAL LIFE. 248 

sary hitherto, and for obvious reasons, to 
place any emphasis, but when we come to deal 
with false pretenders to Immortality we must 
return to it. Were the definition complete as 
it stands, it might, with the permission of the 
psycho-physiologist, guarantee the Immortality 
of every living thing. In the dog, for instance, 
the material framework giving way at death 
might leave the released canine spirit still free 
to inhabit the old Environment. And so with 
every creature which had ever established 
a conscious relation with surrounding things. 
Now the difficulty in framing a theory of 
Eternal Life has been to construct one which 
will exclude the brute creation, drawing the 
line rigidly at man, or at least somewhere 
within the human race. Not that we need ob- 
ject to the Immortality of the dog, or of the 
whole inferior creation. Nor that we need 
refuse a place to any intelligible speculation 
which would people the earth to-day with the 
invisible forms of all things that have ever 
lived. Only we still insist that this is not 
Eternal Life. And why ? Because their En- 
vironment is not Eternal. Their correspond- 
ence, however firmly established, is established 
with that wiiich shall pass away. An Eternal 
Life demands an Eternal Environment. 

The demand for a perfect Environment as 
well as for a perfect correspondence is less 
clear in Mr. Herbert Spencer's definition than 
it might be. But it is an essential factor. An 
organism might remain true to its Environ- 
ment, but what if the Environment played it 



244 ETEllNAL LIFE. 

false ? If the organism possessed the power 
to change, it could adapt itself to successive 
changes in the Environment. And if this were 
guaranteed we should also have the conditions 
for Eternal Life fulfilled. But what if the 
Environment passed away altogether ? What 
if the earth swept suddenly into the sun? 
This is a change of Environment against 
which there could be no precaution and for 
which there could be as little provision. 
With a changing Environment even, there 
must always remain the dread and possibility 
of a falling out of correspondence. At the 
best. Life would be uncertain. But with a 
changeless Environment — such as that pos- 
sessed by the spiritual organism — the per- 
petuity of the correspondence, so far as the 
external relation is concerned, is guaranteed. 
This quality of permanence in the Environment 
distinguishes the religious relation from every 
other. Why should not the musician's life be 
an Eternal Life ? Because, for one thing, the 
musical world, the Environment with which 
he corresponds, is not eternal. Even if his 
correspondence in itself could last eternally, 
the environing material things Avith which he 
corresponds must pass away. His soul might 
last forever — but not his violin. So the man 
of the world might last forever — but not the 
world. His Environment is not eternal ; nor 
are even his correspondences — the world 
passeth away and the hist thereof. 

We find then that man, or the spiritual man, 
is equipped with two sets of correspondences. 



ETERNAL LIFE, 245 

One set possesses the quality of everlastingness, 
the other is temporal. But unless these are 
separated by some means the temporal will 
continue to impair and hinder the eternal. 
The final preparation, therefore, for the in- 
heriting of Eternal Life must consist in the 
abandonment of the non-eternal elements. 
These must be unloosed and dissociated from 
the higher elements. And this is effected by 
a closing catastrophe — Death. 

Death ensues because certain relations in 
the organism are not adjusted to certain 
relations in the Environment. There will 
come a time in each history when the imper- 
fect correspondences of the organism will 
betray themselves by a failure to compass 
some necessary adjustment. This is why 
Death is associated with Imperfection. Death 
is the necessary result of Imperfection, and 
the necessary end of it. Imperfect correspond- 
ence gives imperfect and uncertain Life. 
''Perfect correspondence," on the other hand, 
according to Mr. Herbet Spencer, would be 
"perfect Life." To abolish Death, therefore, 
all that would be necessary would be to abol- 
ish Imperfection. But it is the claim of Chris- 
tianity that it can abolish Death. And it is 
significant to notice that it does so by meeting 
this very demand of Science — it abolishes Im- 
perfection. 

The part of the organism which begins to 
get out of correspondence with the Organic 
Environment is the only part which is in vital 
correspondence with it. Though a fatal di»- 



246 ETERNAL LIFE. 

advantage to the natural man to be thrown 
out of correspondence with this Environment, 
it is of inestimable importance to the spiritual 
man. For so long as it is maintained the way 
is barred for a further Evolution. And hence 
the condition necessary for the further Evolu- 
tion is that the spiritual be released from the 
natural. That is to say, the condition of the 
further Evolution is Death. Mo7's janua 
Vitce^ therefore, becomes a scientific formula. 
Death, being the final sifting of all the corre- 
spondences, is the indispensable factor of the 
higher Life. In the language of Science, not 
less than of Scripture, " To die is gain." 

The sifting of the correspondences is done by 
Nature. This is its last and greatest contri- 
bution to mankind. Over the mouth of the 
grave the perfect and the imperfect submit to 
their final separation. Each goes to its own 
— earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. 
Spirit to Spirit. " The dust shall return to the 
earth as it was ; and the Spirit shall return 
unto God who gave it." 



ENVIRONMENT 



** When I talked with an ardent missionary and 
pointed out to him that his creed found no support in 
my experience, he rephed : * It is not so in your ex- 
perience, but is so in the other world.' I answer : 
* Other world ! There is no other world. God is one 
and omnipresent ; here or nowhere is the whole 
fact.' " Emerson. 



ENVIRONMENT. 

*' Ye are complete in Him." — Paul, 

*' Whatever amount of power an organism expends in 
any shape is the correlate and equivalent of a power 
that was taken into it from without." — Herbert Spen- 
cer, 

Students of Biography will observe that iii 
all well- written Lives attention is concentrated 
for the first few chapters upon two points. 
We are first introduced to the family to which 
the subject of memoir belonged. The grand- 
parents, or even the more remote ancestors, 
are briefly sketched and their chief character- 
istics brought prominently into view. Then 
the parents themselves are photographed in 
detail. Their appearance and physique, their 
character, their disposition, their mental qual- 
ities, are set before us in a critical analysis. 
And finally we are asked to observe how much 
the father and the mother respectively have 
transmitted of their peculiar nature to their 
offspring. How faithfully the ancestral lines 
have met in the latest product, how mysteri- 
ously the joint characteristics of body and 
mind have blended, and how unexpected yet 
how entirely natural a recombination is there- 
suit — these points are elaborated with cumula- 
tive effect until we realize at last how little we 



250 ENVIRONMENT. 

are dealing with an independent unit, how much 
with a survival and reorganization of what 
seemed buried in the grave. 

In the second place, we are invited to con- 
sider more external influences — schools and 
schoolmasters, neighbors, home, pecuniary cir- 
cumstances, scenery, and, by and by, the relig- 
ious and political atmosphere of the time. 
These also we are assured have played their 
part in making the individual what he is. We 
can estimate these early influences in any par- 
ticular case with but small imagination if we 
tail to see how pow^erfully they also have 
moulded mind and character, and in what 
subtle ways they have determined the course 
of the future life. 

This twofold relation of the individual, first, 
to his parents, and second, to his circumstances, 
is not peculiar to human beings. These two 
factors are responsible for making all living 
organisms what they are. When a naturalist 
attempts to unfold the life-history of any ani- 
mal, he proceeds precisely on these same lines. 
Biography is really a branch of Natural His- 
tory; and the biographer who discusses his 
hero as the resultant of these two tendencies, 
follows the scientific method as rigidly as Mr. 
Darwin in studying ''Animals and Plants 
under Domestication." 

Mr. Darwin, following Weismann, long ago 
pointed out that there are two main factors in 
all Evolution — the nature of the organism and 
the nature of the conditions. We have chosen 
our illustration from the highest or human 



ENVIRONMENT, 251 

species in order to define the meaning of these 
factors in the clearest way ; but it must be re- 
membered that the development of man under 
these directive influences is essentially the 
same as that of any other organism in the 
hands of ISTature. We are dealing therefore 
with universal Law. It will still further serve 
to complete the conception of the general prin- 
ciple if we now substitute for the casual 
phrases by which the factors have been de- 
scribed the more accurate terminology of 
Science. Thus what Biography describes as 
parental influences, Biology would speak of as 
Heredity; and all that is involved in the 
second factor — the action of external circum- 
stances and surroundings — the naturalist 
would include under the single term Environ- 
ment. These two, Heredity and Environment, 
are the master-influences of the organic world. 
These have made all of us what we are. These 
forces are still ceaselessly playing upon all our 
lives. And he who truly understands these 
Influences ; he who has decided how much to 
allow to each ; he who can regulate new forces 
as they arise, or adjust them to the old, so di- 
recting them as at one moment to make them 
co-operate, at another to counteract one an- 
other, understands the rationale of personal 
development. To seize continuously the op- 
portunity of more and more perfect adjust- 
ment to better and higher conditions, to bal- 
ance some inwai'd evil with some purer in- 
fluence acting from without, in a word to make 
our Environment at the same time that it is 



252 ENVIRONMENT, 

making us, — these are the secrets of a well- 
ordered and successful life. 

In the spiritual world, also, the subtle influ- 
ences which form and transform the soul are 
Heredity and Environment. And here espe- 
cially where all is invisible, where much that 
we feel to be real is yet so ill-defined, it be- 
comes of vital practical moment to clarify the 
atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions 
borrowed from the natural life. Fe\v things 
are less undei'stood than the conditions of the 
S]3iritual life. The distressing* incompetence 
of which most of us are conscious in trying to 
work out our spiritual experience is due per- 
haps less to the diseased will which we com- 
monly blame for it than to imperfect knowl- 
edge of the right conditions. It does not 
occur to us how natui-al the spiritual is. We 
still strive for some strange transcendent thing; 
we seek to promote life by methods as un.- 
natural as they prove unsuccessful ; and only 
the utter incomprehensibility of the w^hole 
region prevents us seeing fully — what we 
already half suspect — how completel}^ we are 
missing the road. Living in the spiritual 
world, nevertheless, is just as simple as living 
in the natural world ; and it is the same kind 
of simplicity. It is the same kind of simplic- 
ity for it is the same kind of world — there are 
not two kinds of worlds. The conditions of 
life in the one are the conditions of life in the 
other. And till these conditions ai'e sensibly 
grasped, as the conditions of all life, it is im- 
possible that the personal elfort after the high- 



ENVIRONMENT. 253 

est life should be other than a blind struggle 
carried on in fruitless sorrow and humilia- 
tion. 

Of these two universal factors, Heredity and 
Environment, it is unnecessary to balance the 
relative importance here. The main influence, 
unquestionably, must be assigned to the former. 
In practice, however, and for an obvious reason, 
we are chiefly concerned with the latter. What 
Heredity has to do for us is determined outside 
ourselves. No man can select liis own parents. 
But every man to some extent can choose his 
own Environment. His relation to it, however 
largely determined by Heredity in the first in- 
stance, is always open to alteration. And so 
great is his control over Environment and so 
radical its influence over him, that he can so 
direct it as either to undo, modify, perpetuate 
or intensify the earlier hereditary influences 
within certain limits. But the aspects of 
Environment which we have now to consider 
do not involve us in questions of such com- 
plexity. In wliat liigli and mystical sense, also, 
Heredity applies to the spiritual organism we 
need not just now inquire. In the simpler re- 
lations of the more external factor we shall find 
a large and fruitful field for study. 

Tlie Influence of Environment may be inves- 
tigated in two main aspects. First, one might 
discuss the modern and very interesting ques- 
tion as to the power of Environment to induce 
what is known to recent science as Variation. 
A change in the surroundings of any animal, it is 
now well-known, can so react upon it as to cause 



254 ENVIRONMENT. 

it to change. By the attempt, conscious of 
unconscious, to adjust itself to the new condi- 
tions, a true physiological change is gradually 
wrought within the organism. Hunter, for ex- 
ample, in a classical experiment, so changed the 
Environment of a sea-gull by keeping it in cap- 
tivity that it could only secure a grain diet. 
The effect was to modify the stomach of the 
bird, normally adapted to a fish diet, until in 
time it came to resemble in structure the gizzard 
of an ordinary grain-feeder such as the pigeon. 
Holmgren again reversed this experiment by 
feeding pigeons for a lengthened period on a 
meat-diet, with the result that the gizzard be- 
came transformed into the carnivorous stom- 
ach. Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace mentions the 
case of a Brazilian parrot which changes its 
color from green to red or yellow when fed on 
the fat of certain fishes. Not only changes of 
food, however, but changes of climate and of 
temperature, changes in surrounding organ- 
isms, in the case of marine animals even changes 
of pressure, of ocean currents, of light, and 
many other circumstances, are known to exert 
a powerful modifying influence upon living 
organisms. These relations are still being 
worked out in many directions, but the influ- 
ence of Environment as a prime factor in Vari- 
ation is now a recognized doctrine of science.^ 

^Vlde Karl Semper s "The Xatiiral Conditions of Ex- 
istence as they alfect Animal Life ; " Wallace's '' Trop- 
ical Nature ; " Weismann's " Studies in the Theory of 
Descent ; " Darwin's "Animals and Plants under Domes- 
tication." 



ENVIRONMENT. 255> 

Even the popular mind has been struck with 
the curious adaptation of nearly all animals to^ 
their habitat^ for example in the matter of 
color. The sandy hue of the sole and floun- 
der, the white of the polar bear with its sug- 
gestion of Arctic snows, the stripes of the Bengal- 
tiger — as if the actual reeds of its native jungle 
had nature-printed themselves on its hide ; — 
these and a hundred others which will occur to 
every one, are marked instances of adaptation to 
Environment, induced by Natural Selection or 
otherwise, for the purpose, obviously in these 
cases at least, of protection. 

To continue the investigation of the modify- 
ing action of Environment into the moral and 
spiritual spheres, would be to open a fascinat- 
ing and suggestive inquiry. One might show 
how the moral man is acted upon and changed 
continuously by the influences, secret and open, 
of his surroundings, by the tone of society, by 
the company he keeps, by his occupation, by 
the books he reads, by i^Tature, by all, in short, 
that constitutes the habitual atmosphere of his 
thoughts and the little world of his daily choice. 
Or one might go deeper still and prove how the 
spiritual life also is modified from outsidj 
sources — its health or disease, its growth or de- 
cay, all its changes for better or for worse being 
determined by the varying and successive cir- 
cumstances in which the religious habits are 
cultivated. But we must rather transfer our 
attention to a second aspect of Environment, 
not perhaps so fascinating but yet more im- 
portant. 



256 ENVIRONMENT. 

So much of the modern discussion of Envi- 
ronment revolves round the mere question of 
Variation that one is apt to overlook a previous 
question. Environment as a factor in life is not 
exhausted when we have realized its modifying 
influence. Its significance is scarcely touched. 
The great function of Environment is not to 
modify but to sustain. In sustaining life, it is 
true, it modifies. But the latter influence is 
hicidental, the former essential. Our Environ- 
ment is that in which we live and move and 
have our being. Without it we should neither 
live nor move nor have any being. In the or- 
ganism lies the principle of life ; in the Envi- 
ronment are tho conditions of life. Without the 
fulfilment of these conditions, v/hich are wholly 
supplied by Environment, ^iiere can be no life. 
An organism in itself is but a part ; Nature is 
its complement. Alone, cut ott' from its sur- 
roundings, it is not. Alone, cut off from my 
surroundings, I am not — physically, I am not. 
I am, only as I am sustained. I continue only 
as I receive. My Environment may modify me, 
but it has first to keep me. And all the time 
its secret transforming power is indirectly 
moulding body and mind it is directly active 
in the more open task of ministerhig to my 
myriad wants and from hour to hour sustain- 
ing life itself. 

To understand the sustaining influence of 
Environment in the animal world, one has only 
to recall what the biologist terms the extrinsic 
or subsidiary conditions of vitality. Every 
living thing normally requires for its develop- 



ENVIRONMENT. £.57 

ment an Environment containing air, light, 
heat, and water. In addition to these, if vital- 
ity is to be prolonged for any length of time, 
and if it is to be accompanied with growth and 
the expenditure of energy, there must be a con- 
stant supply of food. When we remember how 
indispensable food is to growth and work, and 
when we further bear in mind that the food- 
supply is solely contributed by the Environ- 
ment, we shall realize at once the meaning and 
the truth of the proposition that without En- 
vironment there can be no life. Seventy per 
cent, at least of the human body is made of 
pure water, the rest of gases and earths. These 
have all come from Environment. Through 
the secret pores of the skin two pounds of 
water are exhaled daily from every healthy 
adult. The supply is kept up by Environ- 
ment. The Environment is really an unappro- 
priated part of ourselves. Definite portions 
are continuously abstracted from it and added 
to the organism. And so long as the organism 
continues to grow, act, think, speak, work, or 
perform any other function demanding a supply 
of energy, there is a constant simultaneous, and 
proportionate drain upon its surroundings. 

This is a truth in the physical, and therefore 
in the spiritual, world of so great importance 
that we shall not mis-spend time if we follow 
it, for further confirmation, into another de- 
partment of nature. Its significance in Biology 
is self-evident ; let us appeal to Chemistry. 

When a piece of coal is thrown on the fire, 
we say that it will radiate into the room a cer- 
17 



258 ENVIRONMENT. 

tain quantity of heat. Tliis heat, in the popu- 
lar conception, is supposed to reside in the coal 
and to be set free during the process of com- 
bustion. In reality, however, the heat energy 
is only in part contained in the coal. It is 
contained just as truly in the coal's Environ- 
ment — that is to say, in the oxygen of the air. 
The atoms of carbon which compose the coal 
have a x3owerful affinity for the oxygen of the 
air. Wlienever they are made to approach 
within a certain distance of one another, by the 
mitial application of heat, they rush together 
with inconceivable velocity. The heat wdiicli 
appears at this moment, comes neither from 
the carbon alone, nor from the oxygen alone. 
These two substances are really inconsumable, 
and continue to exist, after they meet in a com- 
bined form, as carbonic acid gas. The heat is 
due to the energy developed by the chemical 
embrace, the precipitate rushing together of the 
molecules of carbon and the molecules of 0x3^- 
gen. It comes, therefore, partly from tlie coal 
and partly from the Environment. Coal alone 
never could produce heat, neither alone could 
Environment. The two are mutually depend- 
ent. And although in nearly all the arts we 
credit everything to the substance which we 
can weigh and handle, it is certain that in most 
cases the larger debt is due to an invisible En- 
vironment. 

This is one of those great commonplaces 
which slip out of general reckoning by reason 
of their very largeness and simplicity. How 
profound, nevertheless, are the issues which 



ENVIBONMENT, 259 

hang on this elementary truth, we shall dis- 
cover immediately. Nothing in this age is 
more needed in every department of knowl- 
edge than the rejuvenescence of the common- 
place. In the spiritual world especially, he 
will be wise who courts acquaintance with the 
most ordinary and transparent facts of Nature ; 
and in laying the foundations for a religious 
life he will make no unworthy beginning who 
carries with him an impressive sense of so 
obvious a truth as that without Environment 
there can be no life. 

For what does this amount to in the spirit- 
ual world? Is it not merely the scientific re- 
statement of the reiterated aphorism of Christ, 
"Without Me y^ can do nothing"? There is 
in the spiritual organism a principle of life; 
but that is not self-existent. It requires a 
second factor, a something in which to live 
and move and have its being, an Environment.' 
Without this it cannot live or move or have 
any being. Without Environment the soul 
is as the carbon without the oxygen, as the 
fish without the water, as the animal frame 
without the extrinsic conditions of vitality. 

And what is the spiritual Environment? It 
is God. Without this, therefore, there is no 
life, no thought, no energy, nothing — " without 
Me ye can do nothing." 

The cardinal error in the religious life is 
to attempt to live without an Environment. 
Spiritual experience occupies itself, not too 
much, but too exclusively, with one factor — . 
the soul. We delight in dissecting this mucix 



260 ENVIRONMENT. 

tortured faculty, from time to time, in search 
of a certain something which we call our faith 
— forgetting that faith is but an attitude, an 
empty hand for grasping an environing Pres- 
ence. And when we feel the need of a power 
by which to overcome the world, how often 
do we not seek to generate it within our- 
selves by some forced process, some fresh gird- 
ing of the will, some strained activity which 
only leaves the soul in further exhaustion ? 
To examine ourselves is good ; but useless un- 
less we also examine Environment. To bewail 
our weakness is right, but not remedial. The 
cause must be investigated as well as the re- 
sult. And yet, because we never see the other 
half of the problem, our failures even fail to 
instruct us. After each new Collapse we begin 
our life anew, but on the old conditions ; and 
the attempt ends as usual in the repetition — 
■in the circumstances the inevitable repetition 
— of the old disaster. Not that at times we 
do not obtain glimpses of the true state of the 
case. After seasons of much discouragement, 
with the sore sense upon us of our abject 
feebleness, we do confer with ourselves, insist- 
ing for the thousandth time, " iMy soul, wait 
thou only upon God." But, the lesson is soon 
forgotten. The strength supplied we speedily 
credit to our own achievement ; and even the 
temporary success is mistaken for a symptom 
of improved inward vitality. Once more we 
become self-existent. Once more we go on liv- 
ing without an Environment. And once more, 
after days of wasting without rei^airing, of 



ENVIRONMENT. 261 

spending without replenishing, we begin to 
perish with hunger, only returning to God 
again, as a last resort, when we have reached 
starvation point. 

Now why do we do this ? Why do ve seek 
to breathe without an atmosphere, to drink 
without a well? Why this unscientific at- 
tempt to sustain life for weeks at a time with- 
out an Environment ? It is because we have 
never truly seen the necessity for an Environ- 
ment. We have not been working with a 
principle. We are told to "wait only upon 
God," but we do not know why. It has never 
been as clear to us that without God the soul 
will die as that without food the body will 
perish. In short, we have never comprehended 
the doctrine of the Persistence of Force. In- 
stead of being content to transform energy we 
have tried to create it. 

The Law of Nature here is as clear as Sci- 
ence can make it. In the words of Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer, "It is a corollary from that 
primordial truth which, as we have seen, 
underlies all other truths, that whatever 
amount of power an organism expends in any 
shape is the correlate and equivalent of a 
power that was taken into it from without." ^ 
We are dealing here with a simple question of 
dynamics. Whatever energy the soul expends 
must first be " taken into it from without." 
We are not Creators, but creatures ; God is our 
refuge and strength. Communion with God, 

^ ^'Principles of Biology," p. 57. 



262 ENVIRONMENT. 

therefore, is a scientific necessity ; and nothing 
will more help the defeated spirit which is 
struggling in the. wreck of its religious life 
than a common- sense hold of this plain bio- 
logical principle that without Environment he 
can do nothing. What he wants is not an 
occasional view, but a principle — a basal princi- 
ple like this, broad as the universe, solid as 
nature. In the natural world we act upon this 
law unconsciously. We absorb hent, breathe 
air, draw on Environment all but automatically 
for meat and drink, for the nourishment of the 
senses, for mental stimulus, for all that, pene- 
trating us from without, can prolong, enrich, 
and elevate life. But in the spiritual world we 
have all this to learn. We are new creatures, 
and even the bare living has to be acquired. 

Now the great point in learning to live is to 
live naturally. As closely as possible we must 
follow the broad, clear lines of the natural life. 
And there are three things especially which it 
is necessary for us to keep continually in view. 
The first is that the organism contains within 
itself only one-half of what is essential to life ; 
the second is that the other half is contained 
in the Environment; the third, that the condi- 
tion of receptivity is simple union between the 
organism and the Environment. 

Translated into the language of religion 
these propositions yield, and ]3lace on a scienti- 
fic basis, truths of immense practical interest. 
To say, first, that the organism contains 
within itself only one-half of what is essential 
to life, is to repeat the evangelical confession, 



EN VIR ONMENT, 263 

SO worn and yet so true to universal experi- 
ence, of the utter helplessness of man. Who 
has not come to the conclusion that he is but a 
part, a fraction of some larger whole ? Who 
does not miss at every turn of his life an ab- 
sent God? That man is but a part, he knows, 
for there is room in him or more. That God 
is the other part, he feels, because at times lie 
satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often, 
under that sicklier symptom of his incom- 
pleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his 
helplessness with sin? But now he under- 
stands both — the void in his life, the power- 
lessness of his will. He understands that, 
like all other energy, spiritual power is con- 
tained in Environment. He finds here at last 
the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, 
nothingness, sin. This is why ''without Me 
ye can do nothing." Powerlessness is the 
normal state not only of this but of every 
organism — of every organism apart from its 
Environment 

The entire dependence of the soul upon God 
is not an exceptional mystery, nor is man's 
helplessness an arbitrary and unprecedented 
phenomenon. It is the law of all Nature. 
The spiritual man is not taxed beyond the 
natural. He is not purposely handicapped by 
singular limitations or unusual incapacities. 
God has not designedly made the religious life 
as hard as possible. The arrangements for 
the spiritual life are the same as for the 
natural life. When in their hours of unbelief 
men challenge their Creator for placing the 



264 ENVIRONMENT, 

obstacle of human frailty in the way of their 
highest development, their protest is ngainst 
the order of nature. They object to the sun 
for being the source of energy and not the en- 
gine, to the carbonic acid being in the air and 
not in the plant. They would equip each 
organism with a personal atmosphere, each 
brain with a private store of energy ; they 
would grow corn in the interior of the bod}^, 
and make bread by a special apparatus in the 
digestive organs. They must, in short, have 
the creature transformed into a Creator. The 
organism must either depend on his environ- 
ment, or be self-sufficient. But who will not 
rather approve the arrangement by which 
man in his creatural life may have unbroken 
access to an Infinite Power? What soul will 
seek to remain self-luminous when it knows 
that ''The Lord God is a Sim''? Who will 
not wiliin2:lv exchanc^e his shallow vessel for 
Christ's well of living water? Even if the 
organism, launched into being like a ship put- 
ting out to sea, possessed a full equipment, its 
little store must soon come to an end. But in 
contact Avith a large and bounteous Environ- 
ment its supply is limitless. In every direc- 
tion its resources are infinite. 

There is a modern school wliich protests 
against the doctrine of man's inability as the 
heartless fiction of a past theology. Wliile 
some forms of that dogma, to any one wlio 
knows man, are incapable of defence, there are 
others whicli, to any one who knows Nature, 
are incapable of denial. Those who oppose 



ENVIRONMENT. 265 

it, in their jealousy for humanity, credit the 
organism with the properties of Environment. 
All true theology, on the other hand, has re- 
mained loyal to at least the root-idea in this 
truth. The New Testament is nowhere more 
impressive than where it insists on the fact of 
man's dependence. In its view the first step 
in religion is for man to feel his helplessness. 
Christ's first beatitude is to the poor in spirit. 
The condition of entrance into the spiritual 
kingdom is to possess the child-spirit — that 
state of mind combining at once the profoundest 
helplessness with the most artless feeling ot 
dependence. Substantially the same idea 
underlies the countless passages in which 
Christ afiirms that ITe has not come to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance. And in 
that farewell discourse into which the Great 
Teacher poured the most burning convictions 
of His life, He gives to this doctrine an ever 
increasing emphasis. No words could be more 
solemn or arresting than the sentence in the 
last great allegory devoted to this theme, " As 
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it 
abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye 
abide in Me." The word here, it will be 
observed again, is cannot. It is the imperative 
of natural law. Fruit-bearing without Christ 
is not an improbability, but an impossibility. 
As well expect the natural fruit to flourish with- 
out air and heat, without soil and sunshine. 
How thoroughly also Paul grasped this truth 
is apparent from a hundred pregnant passages 
in which he echoes his Master's teaching. To 



266 ENVIRONMENT. 

liim life was hid with Christ in God. And that 
he embraced this not as a theory but as an ex- 
perimental truth we gather from his constant 
'confession, " When I am weak, then am I 
strong." 

This leads by a natural transition to the 
second of the three points we are seeking to 
illustrate. We have seen that the organism 
contains within itself only one half of what is 
essential to life. We have next to observe, as 
the complement of this, how the second half is 
contained in the Environment. 

One result of the due apprehension of our 
personal helplessness will be that we shall no 
longer waste our time over the impossible task 
of manufacturing energy for ourselves. Our 
science will bring to an abrupt end the long 
series of severe experiments in which we have 
indulged in the hope of finding a perpetual 
motion. And having decided upon this once 
for all, our first step in seeking a more satis- 
factory state of things must be to find a new 
source of energy. Following I^ature, only one 
course is open to us. We must refer to 
Environment. The natural life owes all to 
Environment, so must the spiritual. Now 
the Environment of the spiritual life is God. 
As Nature therefore forms the complement of 
the natural life, God is the complement of the 
spiritual. 

The proof of this ? That Nature is not more 
natural to my body than God is to my soul. 
Every animal and plant has its own Environ- 
ment. And the further one inquires into the 



ENVIRONMENT, 267 

relations of the one to the other, the more one 
sees the marvellous intricacy and beauty of 
the adjustments. These wonderful adapta- 
tions of each organism to its surroundings — of 
the fish to the water, of the eagle to the air, of 
the insect to the forest-bed ; and of each part 
of every organism — the fish's swim-bladder, the 
eagle's eye, the insect's breathing tubes — which 
the old argument from design brought home to 
us with such enthusiasm, inspire us still with a 
sense of the boundless resource and skill of 
Nature in perfecting her arrangements for each 
single life. Down to the last detail the world 
is made for what is in it ; and by whatever 
process things are as they are, all organisms 
find in surrounding N^ature the ample comple- 
ment of themselves. Man, too, finds in his 
Environment provision for all capacities, scope 
for the exercise of every faculty, room for the 
indulgence of each appetite, a just supply for 
every want. So the spiritual man at the apex 
of the pyramid of life finds in the vaster range 
of his Environment a provision, as much 
higher, it is true, as he is higher, but as del- 
icately adjusted to his varying needs. And 
all this is supplied to him just as the lower 
organisms are ministered to by the lower en- 
vironment, in the same simple ways, in the 
same constant sequence, as appropriately and 
as lavishly. We fail to praise the ceaseless 
ministry of the great inanimate world around 
us only because its kindness is unobtrusive. 
Nature is always noiseless. All her greatest 
gifts are given in secret. And we forget how 



lu.^ EXVIJWNMENr. 

truly every good iind perfect gift comes from 
Avithout, iU]d from above, because no pause iu 
her changeless beneficence leaches us the sad 
lessons of deprivation. 

It is not a strange thing, then, for the soul 
to find its life in God. This is its iKitive air. 
God as the Environment of the soul has been 
from the reUiOtest age the doctrine of all the 
deepest thinkers in religion. ITo\a^ profoundly 
Hebrew poetry is saturated with this high 
thought will a[)pear when we ti'v to conceive 
of it with this left out. 'J'rue |)oeti'y is oidy 
science in another foi-ui. Ar.d long before it was 
possible for religion to give scientific expression 
to its greatest truths, men of insight uttered 
themselves in ])salms which could not have been 
truer to Nature had the most modern light con- 
trolled the inspiration. ''As the hart panteth 
after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul 
after Thee, O God." What fine sense of the 
analogy of the natural and the spiritual does 
not underlie these words! As the hart after 
its Environment, so man after his ; as the 
water-brooks are fitly designed to meet the 
natural wants, so fitly does God implement the 
spiritual need of man. It will be noticed that 
in the Hebrew poets the longing for God never 
strikes one as morbid, or unnatural to the men 
w^ho uttered it. It is as natui'al to them to 
long for God as for the swallow to seek her 
nest. Throughout all their images no suspi- 
cion rises within us that they are exaggerating. 
We feel how truly tliey are reading themselves, 
their deepest selves. Xo false note occurs in 



ENVIRONMENT, 269 

all their aspiration. There is no weariness^ 
even in their ceaseless sighing, except the 
lover's weariness for the absent — if they would 
fly away, it is only to be at rest. Men who 
have no soul can only wonder at tliis. Men 
who have a soul, but with little faith, can only 
envy it. How joyous a thing it was to the 
Hebrews to seek their God ! How artlessly 
they call upon Him to entertain them in His 
pavilion, to cover them with His feathers, to 
hide them in His secret place, to hold them in 
the hollow of His hand or stretch around them 
the everlasting arms ! These men were true 
children of I^ature. # As the humming-bird 
among its own palm-trees, as the ephemera in 
the sunshine of a summer evening, so they 
lived their joyous lives. And even the full 
share of the sadder experiences of life which 
came to all of them but drove them the further 
into the Secret Place, and led them with more 
consecration to make, as they expressed it, 
" the Lord their portion." All that has been 
said since from Marcus Aurelius to Swedenborg, 
from Augustine to Schleiermacher of a beset- 
ting God as the final complement of humanity 
is but a repetition of the Hebrew poet's faith. 
And even the New Testament has nothing 
higher to offer man than this. The psalmist's 
" God is our refuge and strength " is only the 
earlier form, less defined, less practicable, but 
not less noble, of Christ's " Come unto Me, and 
I will give you rest." 

There is a brief phrase of Paul's which de- 
fines the relation with almost scientific accu- 



270 ENVIRONMENT, 

racy, — "Ye are complete in Him." In this is 
summed up the whole of the Bible anthropology 
— the completeness of man in God, his incom- 
pleteness apart from God. 

If it be asked, in what is man incomplete, or, 
In what does God complete him ? the question 
is a wide one. But it may serve to show at 
least the direction in which the Divine En- 
vironment forms the complement of human 
life if we ask ourselves once more what it is 
in life that needs complementing. And to this 
question we receive the significant answer that 
it is in the higher departments alone, or mainly, 
that the mcompleteness, of our life appears. 
The lower departments of Nature are already 
complete enough. The world itself is about as 
good a world as might be. It has been long in 
the making, its furniture is all in, its laws are 
in perfect working order; and although wise 
men at various times have suggested improve- 
ments, there is on the w^hole a tolerably 
unanimous vote of confidence in things as they 
exist. The Divine Environment has little 
more to do for this planet so far as we can see, 
and so far as the existing generation is con- 
cerned. Then the lower organic life of the 
world is also so far complete. God, thi-ough 
Evolution or otherwise, may still have finish- 
ing touches to add here and there, but, already 
it is "all very good." It is difficult to con- 
ceive anything better of its kind than a lily or 
a cedar, an ant or an ant-eater. These organ- 
isms, so far as we can judge, lack nothing. It 
might be said of them, " they are complete in 



ENVIRONMENT. 271 

Nature." Of man also, of man the animal, it 
may be affirmed that his Environment satisfies 
Mm. He has food and drink, and good food 
and good drink. And there is in him no purely 
animal want which is not really provided for, 
and that apparently in the happiest possible 
way. 

But the moment we pass beyond the mere 
animal life we begin to come upon an incom- 
pleteness. The symptoms at fi.rst are slight, 
and betray themselves only by an unexplained 
restlessness or a dull sense of want. Then the 
feverishness increases, becomes more defined, 
and passes slowly into abiding pain. To some 
come darker moments when the unrest deepens 
into a mental agony of which all the other 
woes of earth are mockeries — moments when 
the forsaken soul can only cry in terror for the 
Living God. Up to a point the natural En- 
vironment supplies man's wants, beyond that 
it only derides him. How much in man lies 
beyond that point? Very much — almost all, 
all that makes man man. The first suspicion 
of the terrible truth — so for the time let us 
call it — wakens with the dawn of the intel- 
lectual life. It is a solemn moment when the 
slow-moving mind reaches at length the verge 
of its mental horizon, and, looking over, sees 
nothing more. Its straining makes the abyss 
but more profound. Its cry comes back with- 
out an echo. Where is the Environment to 
complete this rational soul? Men either find 
one, — One — or spend the rest of their days in 
trying to shut their eyes. The alternatives of 



272 ENVIRONMENT, 

the intellectual life are Christianity or Ag- 
nosticism. The Agnostic is right when he 
trumpets his incompleteness. He who is not 
complete in Him must forever incomplete. 
Still more grave becomes man's case when he 
begins further to explore his moral and social 
nature. The problems of the heart and con- 
science are infinitely more perplexing than 
those of the intellect. Has love no future ? 
Has right no triumph? Is the unfinished selr 
to remain unfinished ? Again the alternatives 
are two, Christianity or Pessimism. But when 
we ascend the further height of the religious na- 
ture, the crisis comes. There, without Environ- 
ment, the darkness is unutterable. So madden- 
ing now becomes the mystery that men are com- 
pelled to construct an Environment for them- 
selves. No Environment here is unthinkable. 
An altar of some sort men must have — God, or 
Nature, or Law. But the anguish of Atheism 
is only a negative proof of man's incomplete- 
ness. A witness more overwhelming is the 
prayer of the Christian. What a very strange 
thing, is it not, for man to pray? It is the 
symbol at once of his littleness and of his 
greatness. Here the sense of im23erfection, 
controlled and silenced in the narrower reaches 
of his being, becomes audible. Now he must 
utter himself. The sense of need is so real, 
and the sense of Environment, that he calls out 
to it, addressing it articuhitely, and imploring 
it to satisfy his need. Surely there is nothing 
more touching in Nature than this? Man 
could never so'expose himself, so break through 



EN VIE ONMENT, 273 

all constraint, except from a dire necessity. It 
is the suddenness and unpremeditatedness of 
Prayer that gives it a unique value as an 
apologetic. 

Man has three questions to put to his En- 
vironment, three Symbols of his incomplete- 
ness. They come fi'om three different centres 
of his being. The first is the question of the 
intellect. What is Truth? The natural En- 
vironment answers, " Increase of Knowledge 
increaseth Sorrow," and "much study is a 
Weariness." Christ replies, " Learn of Me, and 
ye shall find Rest." Contrast the world's 
word " Weariness " with Christ's word " Rest." 
No other teacher since the world began has 
ever associated "learn'* with "Rest." Learn 
of me, says the philosopher, and you shall fiild 
Restlessness. Learn of Me, says Christ, and 
ye shall find Rest. Thought, which the god- 
less man has cursed, that eternally starved yet 
ever living spectre, finds at last its imperish- 
able glory ; Thought is complete in Him. The 
second question is sent up from the moral 
nature, Who will show us any good ? And 
again we have a contrast: the world's verdict, 
" Tliere is none that doeth good, no, not one ; " 
and Christ's, " There is none good but God 
only." And, finally, there is the lonely cry 
of the spirit, most pathetic and most deep of 
all. Where is he whom my soul seeketh? 
And the yearning is met as before, "I looked 
on my right hand, and beheld, but there was jj 

no man that would know me ; refuge failed ' 

me; no man cared for my soul. I cried unto 



274 ENVIRONMENT, 

Thee, O Lord : I said, Thou art my refuge and 
my portion in the land of the living." ^ 

Are these the directions in which men in 
these days are seeking to complete their lives ? 
The completion of Life is just now a supreme 
question. It is important to observe how it is 
being answered. If we ask Science or Phi- 
losophy they will refer us to Evolution. The 
struggle for Life, they assure us, is steadily 
eliminating imperfect forms, and as the fittest 
continue to survive we shall have a gradual 
perfecting of being. That is to say, that com- 
pleteness is to be sought for in the organism — 
we are to be complete in Nature and in our- 
selves. To Evolution, certainly, all men will 
look for a further perfecting of Life. But it 
must be an Evolution which includes all the 
factors. Civilization, it may be said, will deal 
with the second factor. It will improve the 
Environment step by step as it improves the 
organism, or the ^organism as it improves the 
Environment. This is well, and it will perfect 
Life up to a point. But beyond that it cannot 
carry us. As the possibilities of the natural 
Life become more defined, its impossibilities 
will become the more appalling. The most 
perfect civilization aa'OuUI leave the best part 
of us still incomplete. 3Ien will have to give 
up the experiment of attempting to live in half 
an Environment. Half an Environment will 
give but half a Life. Half an Environment? 
He whose correspondences are with this world 

^Ps. cxlii. 4, 5. 



ENVIRONMENT. 275 

alone has only a thousandth part, a fraction, 
the mere rim and shade of an Environment, 
and only the fraction of a Life. How long will 
it take Science to believe its own creed, that 
the material universe we see around us is only 
a fragment of the universe we do not see ? The 
very retention of the phrase "Material Uni- 
verse," we are told, is the confession of our 
unbelief and ignorance ; since " matter is the 
less important half of the material of the 
physical universe." ^ 

Tlie thing to be aimed at is not an organism 
self-contained and self-sufficient, however high 
in the scale of being, but an organism complete 
in the whole Environment. It is open to any 
one to aim at a self-sufficient Life, but he will 
find no encouragement in Nature. The Life 
of the body may complete itself in the physical 
world ; that is its legitimate Environment. 
The Life of the senses, high and low, may 
perfect itself in Nature. Even the Life of 
thought may find a large complement in sur- 
rounding things. But the higher thought, and 
the conscience, and the religious Life, can only 
perfect themselves in God. To make the in- 
fluence of Environment stop with the natural 
world is to doom the spiritual nature to death. 
For the soul, like the body, can never perfect 
itself in isolation. The law for both is to be 
complete in the appropriate Environment. 
And the perfection to be sought in the spiritual 
world is a perfection of relation, a perfect 

iThe " Unseen Universe," 6tli Ed. p. 100. 

v] 



276 ENVIRONMENT. 

adjustment of that which is becoming perfect 
to that which is perfect. 

The third problem, now simplified to a point, 
finally presents itself. Where do organism 
and Environment meet ? How does that which 
is becoming perfect avail itself of its perfecting 
Environment? And the answer is, just as in 
Xature. The condition is simply receptivity. 
And yet this is perhaps the least simple of all 
conditions. It is so simple that we will not 
act upon it. But there is no other condition. 
Christ has condensed the wliole truth into one 
memorable sentence, "As the branch cannot 
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, 
no more can ye except ye abide in Me." And 
on the positive side, " He that abideth in Me 
the same bringeth forth much fruit." 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 



** * So careful of the type ?' but no, 
From scarped cliff and quarried stone 
She cries, 'A thousand types are gone, 

I care for nothing, all shall go. 

* Thou makest thine appeal to me ; 
I bring to life, I bring to death : 
The spirit does but mean thy breath : 

I know no more.' And he, shall he, 

Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, 
Such splendid purpose in his eyes. 
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies. 

Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer, 

Who trusted God was love indeed 
And Jove Creation's final law — 
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw 

With rapine, shriek'd against his creed — 

Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, 
Who battled for the True, the Just, 
Be blown about the desert dust 

Or seal'd within the iron hills ? " 

In Memoriam. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

'* Until Christ be formed in you." — Paul, 

" The one end to which, in all living beings, the form- 
ative impulse is tending — the one scheme which the 
Archseus of the old speculators strives to carry out, seems 
to be to mould the offspring into the likeness of the 
parent. It is the first great law of reproduction, that the 
offspring tends to resemble its parent or parents more 
closely than anything else." — Huxley, 

If a botanist be asked the difference between 
an oak, a palm-tree, and a lichen, he will declare 
that they are separated from one another by 
the broadest hne known to classification. 
Without taking into account the outward dif- 
ferences of size and form, the variety of flower 
and fruit, the peculiarities of leaf and branch, 
he sees even in their general architecture types 
of structure as distinct as Norman, Gothic and 
Egyptian. But if the first young germs of 
these three plants are placed before him and he 
is called upon to define the difference, he finds 
it impossible. He cannot even say which is 
which. Examined under the highest powers 
of the microscope they yield no clue. Analyzed 
by the chemist with all the appliances of his 
laboratory they keep their secret. 

The same experiment can be tried with the 
embryos of animals. Take the ovule of the 



280 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

^vorm, the eagle, the elephant, and of man 
himself. Let the most skilled observer apply 
the most searching tests to distinguish one 
from the other and he will fail. But there 
is something more surprising still. Compare 
next the two sets of germs, the vegetable and 
the animal. And tljei'e is still no shade of 
difference. Oak and palm, worm and man, all 
start in life together. No matter into what 
strangely different forms they may afterwards 
develop, no matter whether they ai-e to live on 
sea or land, creep or fly, swim or walk, think 
or vegetate, in the embryo as it first meets the 
eye of Science they are indistinguishable. The 
apple which. fell in Newton's Garden, Newton's 
dog Diamond, and Newton himself, began life 
at the same point.^ 

If we analyze this material point at which 
all life starts, we shall find it to consist of a 



1 " There is, indeed, a period in the development of 
every tissue and every Uving thing known to us when 
tliere are actnahy no structural peculiarities whatever— 
when the whole organism consists of tiansparent, struct- 
ureless, semi-fluidliving bioplasm — when it would not 
be possible to distinguish the growing moving matter 
which v.as to evolve the oak from that which was tlie 
germ of a vertebrate animal. Xor can any difference be 
discerned between the bioplasm matter of tlie lowest, 
simplest, epithelial scale of man's organism and that 
from whicli the nerve cells of his brain are to be evolved. 
!N^either by studying bioplasm under the microscope nor 
by anykindof piiysical or chemical investigation known, 
can we form any"^ notion of the nature of the substance 
which is to be formed by the bioplasm, or what will 
be the ordinary lesults of the living." " Bioplasm," 
Lionel S. iieale, F. K. S. , pp. 17, 18. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 281 

clear structureless, jelly-like substance resem- 
bling albumen or white of egg. It is made of 
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and ISTitrogen. Its 
name is protoplasm. And it is not only the 
structural unit with which all living bodies 
start in life, but with which they are subse- 
quently built up. '' Protoplasm," says Huxley, 
"simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all 
life. It is the clay of the Potter." "Beast 
and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm and 
polype are all composed of structural units of 
the same character, namely, masses of pro- 
toplasm with nucleus." ^ 

What then determines the difference between 
different, animals ? What makes one little 
speck of protoplasm grow into I^ewton's dog 
Diamond, and another, exactly the same, into 
Newton himself? It is a mysterious some- 
thing which has entered into this protoplasm. 
No eye can see it. N"o science can define it. 
There is a different something for Newton's 
dog and a different something for Newton ; so 
that though both use the same matter they 
build it up in these widely dift'erent ways. 
Protoplasm being the clay, this something is 
the Potter. And as there is only one clay and 
yet all these curious forms are developed out 
of it, it follows necessarily that the difference 
lies in the potters. There must in short be as 
many potters as there are forms. There is the 
potter who segments the worm, and the potter 
who builds up the form of the dog, and the 

1 Huxley : "Lay Sermons," 6tli. Ed. pp. 127,129. 



282 CONFOEMITY TO TYPE. 

potter who moulds the man. To understand 
unmistakably that it is really the potter who 
does the work, let us follow for a moment a 
description of the process by a trained eye-wit- 
ness. The observer is Mr. Huxley. Through 
the tube of his microscope he is watching the 
development, out of a speck of protoplasm, of 
one of the commonest animals: "Strange 
possibilities," he says, "• lie dormant in that 
semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate supply of 
warmth reach its watery cradle and the plastic 
matter undergoes changes so rapid and yet so 
steady and purposelike in their succession that 
one can only compare them to those operated 
by a skilled modeller upon a formless lump of 
clay. As with an invisible trowel the mass is 
divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller 
portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation 
of granules not too large to build withal the 
finest fabrics of the nascent organism. And, 
then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the 
line to be occupied b}^ the spinal column, and 
moulded the contour of the body; pinching up 
the head at one end, the tail at the other, and 
fashioning flank and limb into due proportions 
in so artistic a wa}^ that, after watching the 
process hour by hour, one is almost involun- 
tarily possessed by the notion, that some more 
subtle aid to vision than an achromatic would 
show the hidden artist, with his plan before 
him, striving with skilful manipulation to 
perfect his work." ^ 

1 Huxley : " Lay Sermons," 6tli Ed. p. 2G1. 



CONFOBMITY TO TYPE. 283 

Besides the fact, so luminously brought out 
here, that the artist is distinct from the "semi- 
liuid globule " of protoplasm in which he works, 
there is this other essential point to notice, 
that in all his '' skilful manipulation " the 
artist is not working at random, but accord- 
ing to law. He has '' his plan before him." 
In the zoological laboratory of JS^ature it is 
not as in a workshop where a skilled artisan 
can turn his hand to anything — where the 
tsame potter one day moulds a dog, the next a 
bird, and the next a man. In Nature one pot^ 
ter is set apart to make each. It is a more 
complete system of division of labor. One 
artist makes all the dogs, another makes all 
the birds, a third makes all the men. More- 
over, each artist confines himself exclusively 
to working out his own plan. He appears to 
have his own plan somewhat stamped upon 
himself, and his work is rigidly to reproduce 
himself. 

'J'he Scientific Law by which this takes place 
is the Law of Conformity to Type. It is con- 
tained, to a large extent, in the ordinary Law 
of Inheritance; or it may be considered as 
-simply another way of stating what Darwin 
€alls the Law of Unity of Type. Darwin de- 
lines it thus: ''By Unity of Type is meant 
that fundamental agreement in structure 
which we see in organic beings of the same 
-class, and which is quite independent of their 
ha])its of life." ^ According to this law every 

1" Origin of Species," p. 166. 



284: CONFOBMITY TO TYPE, 

living thing that comes into the world is com- 
pelled to stamp upon its offspring the image 
of itself. The dog, according to its type, pro- 
duces a dog; the bird a bird. . 

The Artist who operates upon matter in this 
subtle way a-nd carries out this law is Life. 
There are a great many different kinds of Life. 
If one might give the broader meaning to the 
words of the apostle : " All life is not the 
same life. There is one kind of life of men, 
another life of beasts, another of fishes, and 
another of birds." There is the Life, or the 
Artist, or the Potter who segments the worm, 
the potter who forms the dog, the potter Avho 
moulds the man. ^ 

What goes on then in the animal kingdom 
is this — the Bird-Life seizes upon the bird- 
germ and builds it up into a bird, the image of 
itself. The Reptile-Life seizes upon, another 
germinal speck, assimilates surrounding mat- 
ter, and fashions it into a reptile. The Rep- 
tile-Life thus simply makes an incarnation of 
itself. The visible bird is simply an incarna- 
tion of the invisible Bird-Li fe. 

1 There is no intention here to coTintenance the old 
doctrine of the permanence of species. Wliether the 
Avord species represent a fixed quantity or the reverse 
does not affect tiie question. Tlie facts as stated are 
true in contemporary zoolo.2:y if not in j^alasontology. 
It may also he added that the general conception of a 
definite Vital Principle is used here simply as a working 
hypotliesis. Science may yet have to :.':ive up what the 
Germans call the " ontogenetic directive Force." But 
in the absence of any proof to the controry, and espe- 
cially of any satisfactory alternative, we are justified in 
working still with the old theory. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 285 

N"ow we are Hearing the point where the 
spiritual analogy appears. It is a very won- 
derful analogy, so wonderful that one almost 
hesitates to put it into Avords. Yet Nature is 
reverent ; and it is her voice to which we listen. 
These lower phenomena of life, she says, are 
but an allegory. There is another kind of 
Life of wliich Science as yet has taken little 
cognizance. It obeys the same laws. It builds 
up an organism into its own form. It is the 
Christ-Life. As the Bird-Life builds up a bird, 
the image of itself, so the Christ-Life builds up 
a Christ, the image of Himself, in the inward 
nature of man. When a man becomes a Chris- 
tian the natural process is this : The Living 
Christ enters into liis soul. Development be- 
gins. The quickening Life seizes upon the 
soul, assimilates surrounding elements, and 
begins to fashion it. According to the great 
Law of Conformity to Type this fashioning 
takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist 
who fashions. And all through Life this won- 
derful, mystical, glorious, yet perfectly definite 
process goes on "until Christ be formed" 
in it. 

The Christian Life is not a vague effort after 
righteousness — an ill-defined pointless struggle 
for an ill-defined pointless end. Religion is no 
dishevelled mass of aspiration, prayer, and 
faith. -There is no more mystery in Religion 
as to its processes than in Biology. There is 
much mystery in Biology. We knew all but 
nothing of Life yet, nothing of development. 
There is the same mystery in the spiritual Life. 



286 CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 

But the great lines are the same, as decided, as 
luminous ; and the laws of natural and spiritual 
are the -same, as unerring, as simple. Will 
everything else in the natural world unfold its 
order, and yield to Science more and more a 
vision of harmony and Religion, which should 
complement and perfect all, remain a chaos? 
From the standpoint of Revelation no truth is- 
more obscure than Conformity to Type. If 
Science can furnish a companion phenomenon 
from an every-day process of the natural life,. 
it may at least throw this most mystical doc- 
trine of Christianity into thinkable form. Is- 
there any fallacy in speaking of the Embry- 
ology of the New Life ? Is the analogy invalid ? 
Are there not vital processes in the Spiritual 
as well as in the Natural world ? The Bird 
being an incarnation of the Bird-Life, may not 
the Christian be a spiritual incarnation of the 
Christ-Life ? And is there not a real justifi- 
cation in the processes of the New Birth for 
such a parallel ? 

Let us appeal to the record of these pro- 
cesses. 

In what terms does the New Testament 
describe them? The answer is sufficiently 
striking. It uses everywhere the language of 
Biology. It is impossible that the New Testa- 
ment writers should have been familiar with 
these biological facts. It is impossible that 
their views of this great truth should have 
been as clear as Science can make them now. 
But they had no alternative. There was no 
other way of expressing this truth. It was a 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 287 

biological question. So they struck out un- 
hesitatingly into the new field of words, and, 
with an originality which commands both 
reverence and surprise, stated their truth 
with such light, or darkness, as they had. 
They did not mean to be scientific, only to be 
accurate, and their fearless accuracy has made 
them scientific. 

What could be more original, for instance^ 
than the apostle's reiteration that the Christian 
was a new creature, a new man, a babe?^ Or 
that this new man was "begotten of God," 
God's workmanship ? '^ And what could be a 
more accurate expression of the law of Con- 
formity to Type than this: "Put on the new 
man, which is renewed in knowledge after the 
image of Him that created him " ? ^ Or this, 
" We are changed into the same image from 
glory to glory "?^ And elsewhere we are 
expressly told by the same writer that this 
Conformity is the end and goal of the Christian 
life. To work this Type in us is the whole 
purpose of God and man. "Whom He did 
foreknow He also did predestinate to be con- 
formed to the image of His Son." ^ 

One must confess that the originality of this 
entire New Testament conception is most 
startling. Even for the nineteenth century it is 
most startling. But when one remembers that 
such an idea took form in the first, he cannot 
fail to be impressed with a deepening w^onder 

1 2 Cor. V. 17. 2 1 John v. 18 ; 1 Pet. i. 3. 

3 Col. iii. 9, 10. 4 2 Cor. iii. 18. 

^ Eom. viii. 29. 



288 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

at the system wliicli begat and cherished it. 
Men seek the origin of Christianity among the 
^philosophies of that age. Scholars contrast it 
still with these philosophies, and scheme to fit 
it in to those of later growth. Has it never 
occurred to them how much more it is than a 
philosophy, that it includes a science, a Biology 
pure and simple? As well might naturalists 
contrast zoology with chemistry, or seek to in- 
corporate geology with botany — the living with 
the dead — as try to explain the spiritual life 
in terms of mind alone. When will it be seen 
that the characteristic of the Christian Religion 
is its Life, that a true theology must begin 
with a Biology ? Theology is the Science of 
God. Why will men treat God as inorganic ? 

If this analogy is capable of being worked 
out, we should expect answers to at least three 
questions. 

First : What corresponds to the protoplasm 
in the spiritual sphere? 

Second : What is the Life, the Hidden Artist 
who fashions it? 

Third : What do we know of the process 
and the plan? 

First : The Protoplasm. 

We should be forsaking the lines of nature 
were Ave to imagine for a moment that the new 
creature was to be formed out of nothing. 
^x nihilo nihil — nothing can be made out of 
nothing. Matter is uncreatable and indestruc- 
tible; Nature and man can only form and 
transform. Hence when a new animal is made, 
no new clay is made. Life merely enters into 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 289 

already existing matter, assimilates more of 
the same sort and rebuilds it. The spiritual 
Artist works in the same way. lie must have 
a peculiar kind of protoplasm, a basis of life, 
and that must be already existing, 

]^ow lie finds this in the materials of char- 
acter with which the natural man is previously 
provided. Mind and character, the will and the 
aftections, the moral nature — these form the 
bases of spiritual life. To look in this direc- 
tion for the protoplasm of the spiritual life is 
consistent with all analogy. The lowest or 
mineral world mainly supplies the material — 
and this is true even for insectiA^orous species 
—for the vegetable kingdom. The vegetable 
supplies the material for the animal. Next in 
turn, the animal furnishes material for the 
mental, and lastly, the mental for the spiritual. 
Each member of the 'series is complete only 
when the steps below it are complete; the 
highest demands all. It is not necessary for 
the immediate purpose to go so far into the 
psychology either of the new creature or of the 
old as to define more clearly what these moral 
bases are. It is enough to discover that in 
this womb the new creature is to be born, 
fashioned out of the mental and moral parts, 
substance, or essence of the natural man. The 
only thing to be insisted upon is that in the 
natural man this mental and moral substance 
or basis is spiritually lifeless. However active 
the intellectual or moral life may be, from the 
point of view of this other Life it is dead. 
That which is flesh is flesh. It wants, that is 
19 



290 CONFOBMTTY TO TYPE. 

to say, the kind of Life which constitutes the 
difference betv/een the Christian and the not-a-« 
Christian. It lias not yet been "■ born of the 
Spirit." 

To show further that this protophasm pos- 
sesses the necessary properties of a normal 
protophasm it will be necessary to examine in 
passing what these properties ai-e. They are 
two in number, the capacity for life and plas- 
ticity. Consider first the capacity for life. It 
is not enough to find an adequate supply of 
material. That material must be of the right 
kind. For all kinds of matter have not the 
power to be the vehicle of life — all kinds of 
matter are not even fitted to be the vehicle of 
electricity. Whnt peculiarity there is in Car- 
bon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, wlien 
combined in a certain way, to receive life, we 
cannot tell. We only know that life is always 
associated in Nature with this particular ph}' s- 
ical basis and iiever with any other. But we 
are not in the same darkness with regard 
to the moral protoplasm. When we look at 
this complex combination which we have predi- 
cated as the basis of spiritual life, w^e do find 
something which gives it a pecuhar qualifi- 
cation for being the protoplasm of the Christ- 
Life. We discover one strong reason at least, 
not only why this kind of life should be asso- 
ciated with this kind of protoplasm, but why 
it should never l)e associated with other kinds 
which seem to resemble it — why, for instance, 
this spiritual life should not be engrafted upon 
the intelligence of a dog or the instinct of an ant. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 291 

The protoplasm in man has a something in 
addition to its instincts or its habits. It has a 
capacity for God. In tliis capacity for God lies 
its receptivity; it is the very protoplasm that 
was necessary. The chamber is not only 
ready to receive the new Life, but the Guest is 
expected, and, till He comes, is missed. Till 
then the soul longs and yearns, wastes and 
pines, waving its tentacles piteously in the 
empty air, feeling after God if so be that it 
may find Him. This is not peculiar to the 
protoplasm of the Christian's soul. In everj 
land and in every age there have been altars 
to the * Known or Unkno;tvn God. It is now 
agreed as a mere question of anthropology that 
the universal language of the human soul has 
always been " I perish with hunger." This is 
what fits it for Christ. There is a grandeur in 
this cry from the depths which makes its very 
unhappiness sublime. 

The other quality we are to look for in the 
soul is mouldableness, plasticity. Conformity 
demands conformability. Now plasticity is 
not only a marked characteristic of all forms of 
life, but in a special sense of the highest forms. 
It increases steadily as we rise in the scale. 
The inorganic world, to begin with, is rigid. 
A crystal of silica dissolved and redissolved a 
thousand times will never assume any other 
form than the hexagonal. The plant next^ 
though plastic in its elements, is comparatively 
insusceptible of change. The very fixity of its 
sphere, the imprisonment for life in a single 
spot of earth, is the symbol of a certain degra- 



292 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

dation. The animal in all its parts is mobile, 
sensitive, free ; tlie highest anim^-J, man, is the 
most mobile, the most at leisure from routine, 
the most impressionable, the most open for 
change. And when we reach the mind and 
soul, this mobility is found in its most de- 
veloped form. Whether we regard its sus- 
ceptibility to impressions, its lightning-like re- 
sponse even to influences the most impalpable 
and subtle, its power of instantaneous adjust- 
ment, or whether we regard the delicacy and 
variety of its moods, or its vast powers of 
growth, we are forced to recognize in this the 
most perfect capacity for change. The mar- 
vellous plasticity of hiind contains at once the 
possibility and prophecy of its transformation. 
The soul, in a word, is made to be convei'ted. 

Second, the Life. 

The main reason for giving the Life, the 
agent of this change, a separate treatment, is 
to emphasize the distinction betw^een it and the 
natural man on the one hand, and the spiritual 
man on the other. The natural man is its 
basis, the spiritual man is its product, the Life 
itself is something different. Just as in an or- 
ganism we have these three things — formative 
matter, formed matter, and the forming prin- 
ciple or life ; so in the soul we have the old 
nature, the renewed nature, and the transform- 
ing Life. 

This being made evident, little remains here 
to be added. No man has ever seen this Life. 
It cannot be analyzed, or weighed, or traced in 
its essential nature. But this is just what we 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 293 

expected. This invisibility is the same prop- 
erty which we found to be peciiUar to the nat- 
ural life. We saw no life in the first embryos, 
in oak, in palm, or in bird. In the adult it 
likewise escapes us. We shall not wonder if 
w^e cannot see it in the Christian. We shall 
not expect to see it. A fortiori we shall not 
expect to see it, for we are further removed 
from the coarser matter — moving now among 
ethereal and spiritual things. It is because it 
conforms to the law of this analogy so well 
that men, not seeing it, have denied its being. 
Is it hopeless to point out that one of the m.ost 
recognizable characteristics of life is its un- 
recognizableness, and that the very token of 
its spiritual nature lies in its being iDeyond the 
grossness of our eyes ? 

We do not pretend that Science can define 
this Life to be Christ. It has no definition to 
give even of its own life, much less of this. 
But there are converging lines which point, 
at least, in the direction that it is Christ. 
There was One whom history acknowledges 
to have been' the Truth. One of His claims 
was this, " I am the Life." According to the 
doctrine of Biogenesis, life can only come from 
life. It was His additional claim that His 
function in the world was to give men Life. 
" I am come that ye might have Life, and that 
ye might have it more abundantly." This 
could not refer to the natural life, for men had 
that already. He that hath the Son hath an- 
other Life. " Know ye not your own selves 
how that Jesus Christ is in you." 



294 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

Again, there are men whose characters as- 
sume a strange resemblance to Him who was 
the Life. When we see the bird-character ap- 
pear in an organism we assume that the Bird- 
Life lias been there at work. And w^hen we 
behold Conformity to Type in a Christian, and 
know moreover that the type-organization can 
be produced by the type-life alone, does this 
not lend support to the hypothesis that the 
Type-Life also has been here at work? If 
every effect demands a cause, what other 
cause is there for the Christian? When we 
have a cause, and an adequate cause, and no 
other adequate cause ; when we have the ex- 
press statement of that Cause tluit lie is that 
cause, what more is possible ? Let not Science, 
knowing nothing of its own life, go further 
than to say it knows nothing of this Life. 
We shall not dissent from its silence. But 
till it tells us what it is, we wait for evidence 
that it is not this. 

Third, the Process. 

It is impossible to enter at length into any 
details of the great miracle by which this pro- 
toplasm is to be conformed to the Image of the 
Son. We enter that province now only so far 
as this Law of Conformity compels us. Xor 
is it so much the nature of the process we have 
to consider as its general direction and results. 
We are dealing with a question of morphology 
rather than of physiology. 

It must occur to one on reaching this point, 
that a new element here comes in which com- 
pels us, for the moment, to part company with 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 295 

zoology. That element is the conscious power 
of choice. The animal in following the type 
is blind. It does not only follow the type 
involuntarily and compulsorily, but does not 
know that it is following it. We might cer- 
tainly have been made to conform to the Type 
in the higher sphere with no more knowledge 
or power of choice than animals or automata. 
But then we should not have been men. It is 
a possible case, but not possible to the kind of 
protoplasm with which men are furnished. 
Owing to the peculiar characteristics of this 
protoplasm an additional and exceptional pro- 
vision is essential. 

The first demand is that being conscious and 
having this power of choice, the mind should 
have an adequate knowledge of what it is to 
choose. Some revelation of the ^Type, that is 
to say, is necessary. And as that revelation 
can only come from the Type, we must look 
there for it. 

We are confronted at once with the Incar- 
nation. There we find how the Christ-Life 
has clothed Himself with matter, taking literal 
flesh, and dwelt among us. The Incarnation 
is the Life revealing the Type. Men are long 
since agreed that this is the end of the Incarna- 
tion — the revealing of God. But why should 
God be revealed ? Why, indeed, but for man ? 
Why but that "beholding as in a glass the 
glory of the only begotten we should be 
changed into the same Image " ? 

To meet the power of choice, however, some- 
thing more was necessary than the mere reve- 



296 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

latioii of the Type — it was necessary that the 
Type should be the highest conceivable Type. 
In other words, the Type must be an Ideal. For 
all true human growth, effort, and achievement, 
an ideal is acknowledged to be indispensable. 
And all men accordingly whose lives are based 
on principle, have set themselves an ideal, more 
or less perfect. It is this which first deflects 
the will from what is base, and turns the way- 
ward life to what is holy. So much is true as 
mere philosophy. But philosophy failed to pre- 
sent men Avith their ideal. It has never been 
suggested that Christianity has failed. Be- 
lievers and unbelievers have been compelled to 
acknowledge that Christianity holds up to the 
world the missing Type, the Perfect Man. 

The recognition of the Ideal is the first step 
in the direction of Conformity. But let it be 
clearly observed that it is but a step. There 
is no vital connection between merely seeing 
the Ideal and being conformed to it. Thou- 
sands admire Christ who never become Chris- 
tians. 

But the great question still remains, How is 
the Christian to be conformed to the Type, or 
as we should now say, dealing with conscious- 
ness, to the Ideal? The mere knowledge of 
the Ideal is no more tban a motive. IIow is 
the process to be practically accomplished? 
Who is to do it? Where, when, how? This 
is the test question of Christianity. It is here 
that all theories of Christianity, all attempts 
to explain it on natural principles, all reduc- 
tions of it to philosophy, inevitably break down. 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 297 

It is here that all imitations of Christianity 
perish. It is here, also, that personal religion 
finds its most fatal obstacle. Men are all quite 
clear about the Ideal. We are all convinced 
of the duty of mankind regarding it. But how 
to secure that willing men shall attain it — that 
is the problem of religion. It is the failure to 
understand the dynamics of Christianity that 
has most seriously and most pitifully hindered 
its growth both in the individual and in the 
race. 

From the standpoint of biology this practical 
difficulty vanishes in a moment. It is probably 
the very simplicity of the law regarding it that 
has made men stumble. For nothing is so in- 
visible to most men as transparency. The law 
here is the same biological law that exists in 
the natural world. For centuries men have 
striven to find out ways and means to conform 
themselves to this type. Impressive motives 
have been pictured, the proper circumstances 
arranged, the direction of effort defined, and 
men have toiled, struggled, and agonized to 
conform themselves to the Image of the Son. 
Can the protoplasm conform itself to its type ? 
Can the embryo fashion itself? Is Conformity 
to Type produced by the matter or by the life^ 
by the protoplasm or by the Type ? Is organi- 
zation the cause of life or the effect of it? It 
is the effect of it. Conformity to Type, there- 
fore, is secured by the type. Christ makes the 
Christian. 

Men need only to reflect on the automatic 
processes of their natural body to discover that 



298 CONFOBMITY TO TYPE, 

this is the universal law of Life. What does 
any man consciously do, for instance, in the 
matter of breathing? What part does he take 
in circulating the blood, in keeping up the 
rhythm of his heart? What control has he 
overgrowth? What man by taking thought 
can add a cubit to his stature? What part 
voluntarily does man take in secretion, in di- 
gestion, in the reflex actions ? In point of fact 
is he not after all the veriest automaton, every 
organ of his body given him, every function 
arranged for him, brain and nerve, thought 
and sensation, will and conscience, all provided 
for him ready made? And yet he turns upon 
his soul and wishes to 0]-ganize that himself ! O 
preposterous and vain man, thou who couldest 
not make a finger nail of thy body, thinkest 
thou to fashion this wonderful, mysterious, 
subtle soul of thine after the ineffable Image ? 
Wilt thou ever j^ermit thyself to he conformed 
to the Image of the Son ? Wilt thou, who 
canst not add a cubit to thy stature, submit to 
he raised by the Type-Life within thee to the 
perfect stature of Christ? 

This is a humbling conclusion. And there- 
fore men will resent it. Men will still experi- 
ment "by works of righteousness which they 
have done" to earn the Ideal life. The doc- 
trine of Human Inabilitv, as the Church calls 
it, has always been objectionable to men who 
do not know themselves. The doctrine itself, 
perhaps, has been partly to blame. While it 
has been often affirmed in such language as 
rightly to humble men, it has also been stated 



CONJb^OlUlITY TO TYPE, 299 

and cast in their teeth with words which could 
only insult them. Merely to assert dogmati- 
cally that man has no power to move hand or 
foot to help liimself toward Christ, carries no 
real conviction. The weight of human author- 
ity is always powerless, and ought to be where 
the intelligence is denied a rationale. In the 
light of modern science when men seek a reason 
for every thought of God or man, this old doc- 
trine Avith its severe and almost inhuman as- 
pect — till rightly understood — must presently 
have succumbed. But to the biologist it can-- 
not die. It stands to him on the solid ground 
of [NTature. It has a reason in the laws of life 
which must resuscitate it and give it another 
lease of years. Bird-Life makes the Bird. 
Christ-Life makes the Christian. No man by 
taking thought can add a cubit to his stature. 
So much for the scientific evidence. Here is 
the corresponding statement of the truth from 
Scripture. Observe the passive voice in these 
sentences: '-'' Begotten of God;" "The new 
man which is renewed in knowledge after the 
Image of Him that created him ; " or this, " We 
are changed into the same Image;" or this, 
" Predestinate to he conformed to the Image of 
His Son;" or again, '' Until Christ Se/orma? 
in you ; " or, " Except a man he horn again he 
cannot see the Kingdom of God ; " " Except a 
man he horn of water and of the Spirit he can- 
not enter the Kingdom of God." There is one 
outstanding verse which seems at first sight 
on the other side: "Work out your own sal- 
vation with fear and trembling ; " but as one 



300 CONFOllMITY TO TYPE. 

reads on he finds, as if the writer dreaded the 
very misconception, the complement, " For it 
is God which worketh in you both to will and 
to do of His good pleasure." 

It will be noticed in these passages, and in 
others which might be named, that the process 
of transformation is referred indifferently to 
the agency of each Person of the Trinity in 
turn. We are not concerned to take up this 
question of detail. It is sufficient that the 
transformation is wrought. 

Theologians, however, distinguish thus: the 
indirect agent is Christ, the direct influence is 
the Holy Spirit. In other words, Christ by 
His Spirit renews the souls of men. 

Is man, then, out of the arena altogether? 
Is he mere clay in the hands of the potter, 
a machine, a tool, an automaton ? Yes and No. 
If he were a tool he would not be a man. If 
he were a man he would have something to do. 
One need not seek to balance what God does 
here, and what man does. But we shall attain 
to a sufficient measure of truth on a most deli- 
cate problem if we make a final appeal to the 
natural life. We find that in maintaining this 
natural life Nature has a share and man has a 
share. By far the larger part is done for us — 
the breathing, the secreting, the circulating, 
of the blood, the building up of the organism. 
And although the part which man plays is 
a minor part, yet, strange to say, it is not less 
essential to the well-being, and even to the 
being of the whole. For instance, man has to 
take food. He has nothing to do with it after 



CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 801 

he has once taken it, for the moment it passes 
his lips it is taken in hand by reflex actions 
and handed on from one organ to another, his 
control over it, in the natural course of things, 
\being completely lost. But the initial act was 
his. And without that nothing could have 
been done. Now whether there be an exact 
analogy between the voluntary and involuntary 
functions in the body, and the corresponding 
processes in the soul, we do not at present 
inquire. But this will indicate, at least, that 
man has his own part to play. Let him choose 
Life; let him daily nourish his soul; let him 
forever starve the old life ; let him abide con- 
tinuously as a living branch in the Vine, and 
the True- Vine Life will flow into his soul; as- 
similating, renewing, conforming to Type, till 
Christ, pledged by His own law, be formed in 
him. 

We have been dealing with Christianity at 
its most mystical point. Mark here once more 
its absolute naturalness. The pursuit of the 
Type is just what all ISTature is engaged in. 
Plant and insect, fish and reptile, bird and 
mammal — these in their several spheres are 
striving after the Type. To prevent its extinc- 
tion, to ennoble it, to people earth and sea and 
sky with it ; this is the meaning of the Struggle 
for Life. And this is our life — to pursue the 
Type, to populate the world with it. 

Our religion is not all a mistake. We are 
not visionaries. We are not " unpractical," 
as men pronounce us, when we worship. To 
try to follow Christ is not to be "righteous 



o02 CONFORMITY TO TYPE. 

overmuch."" True men are not rhapsodizing 
Avhen they preach ; nor do tliose waste their 
lives Avho waste themselves in striving to 
extend the Kingdom of God on earth. This 
is vv^hat life is for. The Christian in his life-aim 
is in strict line with Nature. What men call 
liis supernatural is quite natural. 

Mark well also the splendor of this idea of 
salvation. It is not merely final "safety," to 
be forgiven sin, to evade the curse. It is not, 
vaguely, "to get to heaven." It is to be con- 
formed to the Image of the Son. It is for these 
poor elements to attain to the Supreme Beauty. 
The organizing Life being Eternal, so must 
this Beauty be immortal. Its progress towards 
the Immaculate is already guaranteed. And 
more than all there is here fulfilled the sub- 
limest of all prophecies ; not Beauty alone but 
Unity is secured by the type — Unity of man 
and man, God and man, God and Christ and 
man, till " all shall be one." 

Could Science in its most brilliant anticipa- 
tions for the future of its highest organism 
ever have foreshadowed a development like 
this ? Is^ow that the revelation is made to it, 
it surely recognizes it as the missing point in 
Evolution, the climax to which all Creation 
tends. Hitherto Evolution had no future. It 
was a pillar with marvellous carving, growing 
richer and finer towards the top, but without 
a capital ; a pyramid, the vast base buried in 
the inorganic, towering higher and higher, tier 
above tier, life above life, mind above mind, ever 
more perfect in its Avorkmanship, more noble 



CONFOEMITY TO TYPE. 303 

in its symmetry, and yet withal so mucli the 
more mysterious in its aspiration. The most 
curious eye, following: it upwards, saw nothing. 
The cloud fell and covered it. Just what men 
wanted to see was hid. The work of the ages 
had no apex. But the work begun by Nature 
is finished by the Supernatural — as we are wont 
to call the higher natural. And as the veil is 
lifted by Christianity it strikes men dumb with 
wonder. For the goal of Evolution is Jesus 
Christ. 

The Christian life is the only life that will 
ever be completed. Apart from Christ the life 
of man is a broken pillar, the race of Men an 
unfinished pyramid. One by one in sight of 
Eternity all human Ideals fall short, one by one 
before the open grave all human hopes dissolve. 
The Laureate sees a moment's light in Nature's 
jealousy for the Type ; but that too vanishes. 

" ' So careful of the type ? ' but no, 
From scarped cliff and quarried stone 
She cries, ' A thousand types are gone ; 
I care for nothing, all shall go.' " 

All shall go ? No, one Type remains. " Whom 
He did foreknow He also did predestinate to 
be conformed to the Image of His Son." And 
"when Christ who is our life shall appear, 
than shall ye also appear with Him in glory." 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 



*^ The Situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was 
never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, 
miserable, hampered, despicable Actual, wherein 
thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy Ideal: 
work it out therefrom, and working, believe, live, be 
free." Carlyle. 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 

*' Work out your own salvation." — Paul, 

"Any new set of conditions occurring to an animal 
which render its food and safety very easily attained, 
seem to lead as a rule to degeneration." — E. Bay Lan- 
kester. 

Parasites are the paupers of Nature. They 
are forms of life which will not take the 
trouble to find their own food, but borrow or 
steal it from the more industrious. So deep- 
rooted is this tendency in Nature, that plants 
may become parasitic — it is an acquired habit 
— as well as animals; and both are found in 
every state of beggary, some doing a little for 
themselves, while others, more abject, refuse 
even to prepare their own food. 

There are certain plants — the Dodder, for 
instance — wliich begin life with the best inten- 
tions, strike true roots into the soil, and really 
appear as if they meant to be independent for 
life. But after supporting themselves for a 
brief period they fix curious sucking discs into 
the stem and branches of adjacent plants. 
And after a little experimenting, the epiphyte 
finally ceases to do anything for its own sup- 
port, thenceforth drawing all its supplies 
ready-made from the sap of its host. In this 
parasitic state it has no need for organs of 



808 SEMI-PARA SITISM. 

nutrition of its own, and Xature therefore 
takes them away. Ilencefortli, to the botanist, 
the adult Dodder j)resents the degraded spec- 
tacle of a plant without a root, without a twig, 
without a leaf, aud having a stem so useless as 
to be inadequate to bear its own weight. 

In the Mistletoe the parasitic habit has 
reached a stage in some respects lower still. 
It has persisted in the downward course for so 
many generations that the young forms even 
have acquired the habit and usually begin life 
at once as parasites. The Mistletoe berries, 
whicli contain the seed of the future plant, are 
developed specially to minister to this degen- 
eracy, for they glue themselves to the branches 
of some neighboring oak or apple, and there 
the young Mistletoe starts as a dependent from 
the first. 

Among animals these lazzaroni are more 
largely represented still. Almost every ani- 
mal is a living poor-house, and harbors one 
or more species of epizoa or eutozoa^ supplying 
them gratis, not only with a permanent home, 
but with all the necessaries and luxuries of life. 

Why does the naturalist think hai'dly of the 
parasites ? Why does he speak of them as de- 
graded, and despise them as the most ignoble 
creatures in Nature? What more can an ani- 
mal do than eat, drink, and die to-morrow? 
If under the fostering care and protection of a 
higher organism it can eat better, drink more 
easily, live more merrily, and die, perhaps not 
until the day after, why should it not do so? 
Is parasitism, after all, not a somewhat clever 



SEMI-PARASITISM, 809 

ruse ? Is it not an ingenious way of securing 
the benefits of life \yliile evading its responsi- 
bilities? And althougli this mode of liveli- 
hood is selfish, and possibly undignified, can it 
be said that it is immoral? 

The naturalist's reply to this is brief. Para- 
sitism, he will say, is one of the gravest crimes 
in Xature. It is a breach of the law of Evo- 
lution. Thou shalt evolve, thou shalt develop 
all thy faculties to the fall, thou shalt attain 
to the highest conceivable perfection of thy 
race — and so perfect thy race — this is the first 
and greatest commandment of Nature. But 
the parasite has no thought for its race, or for 
perfection in any shape or form. It wants two 
things — food and shelter. How it gets them 
is of no moment. Each member lives exclu- 
sively on its own account, an isolated, indolent, 
selfish, and baclvsliding life. 

The remarkable thing is that Xature permits 
the community to be taxed in this way appar- 
ently without |;)rotest. Eor the parasite is a 
consumer pure and simple. And the " Perfect 
Economy of Nature " is surely for once at fault 
when it encourages species numbered by thou- 
sands which produce nothing for their own or 
for the general good, but live, and live luxur- 
iously, at the expense of others ? 

Now when we look into the matter, we very 
soon perceive that instead of secretly coun- 
tenancing this ingenious device by which 
parasitic animals and plants evade the great 
law of the Struggle for Life, Nature sets her 
face most sternly agahist it. Ap'1 instead of 



810 SEMI'PA BA SIT ISM. 

allowing the transgressors to slip through her 
fingers, as one might at first suppose, she 
visits upon them the most severe and terrible 
j)enalties. The parasite, she argues, not only 
injures itself, but wrongs others. It disobe^^s 
the fundamental law of its own being, and taxes 
the innocent to contribute to its disgrace. So 
that if Nature is just, if Nature has an aveng- 
ing hand, if she holds one vial of wrath more 
full and bitter than another, it shall surely be 
poured out upon those who are guilty of this 
double sin. Let us see what, form this punish- 
ment takes. 

Observant visitors to the sea-side, or let us 
say to an aquarium, are familiar with those 
curious little creatures know^n as Hermit- 
crabs. The peculiarity of the Hermits is that 
they take up their abode in the cast-off shell 
of some other animal, not unusually the whelk ; 
and here, like Diogenes in his tub, the creature 
lives a solitarv, but by no means au inactive 
life. 

The Pagarus^ however, is not a parasite. 
And yet although in no sense of tlie word a 
parasite, this way of inhabiting throughout 
life a house built by another animal approaches 
so closely the parasitic habit, that Ave shall 
find it instructive as a preliminary illustration, 
to consider the effect of this free-house policy 
on tlie occupant. There is no doubt, to begin 
with, that, as lias been already indicated, the 
habit is an acquired one. In its general an- 
atomy the Hermit is essentially a crab. Now 
the crab is an animal which, from the nature 



. SEMI-PARASITISM, 311 

of its environment, has to lead a somewhat 
rough and perilous life. Its days are spent 
amongst jagged rocl^s and boulders. Dashed 
about by every wave, attacked on every side 
by monsters of the deep, the crustacean has to 
protect itself by developing a strong and ser- 
viceable coat of mail. 

How best to protect themselves has been 
the problem to which the whole crab family 
have addressed themselves ; and, in considering 
the matter, the ancestors of the Hermit-crab 
hit on the happy device of re-utilizing the 
habitations of the molluscs which lay around 
them in plenty, well-built, and ready for im- 
mediate occupation. For generations and gen- 
erations accordingly, the Hermit-crab has 
ceased to exercise itself upon questions of safety, 
and dwells in its little shell as proudly and 
securely as if its second-hand house were a 
fortress erected especially for its private use. 

• Wherein, then, has the Hermit suffered for 
this cheap, but real solution of a practical 
difficulty ? Whether its laziness costs it any 
moral qualms, or whether its cleverness be- 
comes to it a source of congratulation, we do 
not know ; but judged from the appearance 
the animal makes under the searching gaze of 
the zoologist, its expedient is certainly not one 
to be commended. To the eye of Science its 
sin is written in the plainest characters on its 
very organization. It has suffered in its own 
anatomical structure just by as much as it has 
borrowed from an external source. Instead 
of being a perfect crustacean it has allowed 



812 SEMLPABASITIS3L 



tjj.^ 



certain important parts of its body to deteri- 
orate. And several vital organs are partially 
or wholly atrophied. 

Its sphere of life also is now seriously 
limited; and by a cheap expedient to secure 
safety, it has fatally lost its independence. It 
is plain from its anatomy that the Hermit-crab 
was not always a Hermit-crab. It was meant 
for higher things. Its ancestors doubtless 
Avere more or less perfect crustaceans, though 
what exact stage of development was reached 
before the hermit habit became fixed in the 
species we cannot tell. But from the moment 
the creature took to relying on an external 
source, it began to fall. It slowdy lost in its 
own person all that it now draws from external 
aid. 

As an important item in the day's work, 
namely, the securing of safety and shelter, was 
now guaranteed to it, one of the chief induce- 
ments to a life of high and vigilant effort w\as 
at the same time withdrawn. A number of 
functions, in fact, struck work. The whole of 
the parts, therefore, of the complex organism 
Avhich ministered to these functions, from lack 
of exercise, or total disuse, became gradually 
feeble ; and ultimately, by the stern law that 
an unused organ must suffer a slow but in- 
evitable atropliy, the creature not only lost all 
power of motion in these parts, but lost the 
parts themselves, and otherwise sank into a 
relatively degenerate condition. 

Every normal crustacean, on the other hand, 
has the abdominal region of the body covered 



SEMI-PARA SiriSM. 313 

by a thick chitinous shell. In the Hermits 
this is represented only by a thin and delicate 
membrane — of which the sorry figure the 
creature cuts when drawn from its foreign 
hiding-place is sufficient evidence. Any one 
who now examines further this half-naked 
and woe-begone object, will perceive also that 
the fourth and fifth pair of limbs are either 
so small and Avasted as to be quite useless or 
altogether rudimentary ; and, although cer- 
tainly the additional development of the ex- 
tremity of the tail into an organ for holding on 
to its extemporized retreat may be regarded 
as a slight compensation, it is clear from the 
whole structure of the animal that it has 
allowed itself to undergo severe Degeneration. 

In dealing with the Hermit-crab, in short, 
we are dealing with a case of physiological 
backsliding. That the creature has lost any- 
thing by this X)rocess from a practical point of 
view is not now argued. It might fedrly be 
shown, as already indicated, that its freedom 
is impaired by its cumbrous eko-skeleton, and 
that, in contrast with other crabs, who lead a 
free and roving life, its independence generally 
is greatly limited. But from the physiological 
standpoint, there is no question that the 
Hermit tribe have neither discharged their 
responsibility to Nature nor to themselves. If 
the end of life is merely to escape death, and 
serve themselves, possibly they have done 
well ; but if it is to attain an aver-increasing 
perfection, then are they backsliders indeed. 

A zoologist's verdict would be tliat by this 



814 SEMI-PAEASITISM. 

act they have forfeited to some extent their 
place in the animal scale. An animal is classed 
as low or high according as it is adapted to less 
or more complex conditions of life. This is 
the true standpoint from Avhich to judge all 
living organisms. Were perfection merely a 
matter of continual eating and drinking, the 
Amoeba — the lowest known organism — might 
take rank with the highest, JMan, for the one 
nourishes itself and saves its skin almost as 
completely as the other. But judged by the 
higher standard of Complexity, that is, by 
greater or lesser adaptation to more or less 
complex conditions, the gulf between them is 
infinite. 

We have now received a preliminary idea, 
although not from the study of a true parasite, 
of the essential principles involved in a para- 
sitism. And we may proceed to point out the 
correlative in the moral and spiritual spheres. 
We confine ourselves for the present to one 
point. The difference between the Hermit- 
crab and a true parasite is, that the former 
has acquired a semi-parasitic habit only with 
reference to safety. It may be that the Hermit 
devours as a preliminary the accommodating 
mollusc whose tenement it covets ; but it would 
become a real parasite onl}^ on the supposition 
that the Avhelk was of such size as to keep 
providing for it throughout life, and that the 
external and internal organs of the crab should 
disappear, while it lived henceforth, by simple 
imbibition, upon the elaborated juices of its 
host. All the mollusc provides, however, for 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 315 

the crustacean in this instance is safety, and, 
accordingly, in the mean time we limit our ap- 
plication to this. The true parasite presents 
us with an organism so much more degraded 
in all its parts, that its lesions may well be re- 
served until we have paved the way to under- 
stand the deeper bearings of the subject. 

The spiritual principle to be illustrated in 
the meantime stands thus : Any principle 
which secures the safety of the individual with- 
out personal effortor the vitcd exercise offac- 
%dty is disastrous to morcd character. We do 
not begin by attempting to define words. 
Were we to define truly what is meant by 
safety or salvation, we should be spared further 
elaboration, and the law would stand out as a 
sententious commonplace. But we have to 
deal with the ideas of safety as these are popu- 
larly held, and the chief purpose at this stage 
is to expose what may be called the Parasitic 
Doctrine of Salvation. The phases of religious 
experience about to be described may be un- 
known to many. It remains for those who are 
familiar with the religious conceptions of the 
masses to determine whether or not we are 
wasting words. 

What is meant by the Parasitic Doctrine of 
Salvation one may, perhaps, best explain by 
sketching two of its leading types. The first 
is tlie doctrine of the Church of Rome ; the 
second, that represented by the narrower Evan- 
gelical Religion. We take these religions, 
however, not in their ideal form, with which 
possibly we should have little quarrel, but in 



316 SEMI-PABASITISM, 

their practical working, or in the form in which 
they are held especially by the rank and file 
of those who belong respectively to these com- 
munions. For the strength or weakness of 
any religious system is best judged from the 
form in which it presents itself to, and influ- 
ences the common mind. 

No more perfect or more sad example of 
semi-parasitism exists than in the case of those 
illiterate thousands who, scattered everywhere 
throughout tlie habitable globe, swell the low^er 
ranks of the Church of Rome. Had an organ- 
ization been specially designed, indeed, to in- 
duce the parasitic habit in the souls of men, 
nothing better fitted to its disastrous end 
could be established than the system of Roman 
Catholicism. Roman Catholicism offers to 
the masses a molluscan shell. They have 
simply to shelter themselves within its pale 
and they are "safe." But what is this 
" safe " ? It is an external safety — the safety 
of an institution. It is a salvation recom- 
mended to men by all tliat appeals to the 
motives in most common use with the vulgar 
and the superstitious, but which has as little 
vital connection with the individual soul as tlie 
dead whelk's shell with the living Hermit. 
Salvation is a relation at once vital, personal, 
and spiritual. This is mechanical and purely 
external. And this is of course the final secret 
of its marvellous success and world-wide 
power. A cheap religion is the desideratum 
of the human heart ; and an assurance of sal- 
vation at the smallest possible cost forms the 



SEMI-PABASITISM. 317' 

tempting bait held out to a conscience-stricken 
world by the Romish Church. Thousands, 
therefore, who have never been taught to use 
their faculties in "working out their own 
salvation," thousands who will not exercise 
themselves religiously, and who yet cannot be 
without the exercises of religions, intrust them- 
selves in idle faith to that venerable house of 
refuge which for centuries has stood between 
God and man. A Church which has harbored 
generations of the elect, whose archives en- 
shrine the names of saints, whose foundations 
are consecrated with martyrs' blood — shall it 
not afford a sure asylum for any soul which 
would make its peace with God ? So, as the 
Hermit into the molluscan shell, creeps the 
poor soul within the pale of Rome, seeking, 
like Adam in the garden, to hide its naked- 
ness from God. 

AYhy does the true lover of men restrain not 
his lips in warning his fellows against this 
and all other ]3™stly religion ? It is not be- 
cause he fails to see the prodigious energy of 
the Papal See, or to appreciate the many noble 
types of Christian manhood nurtured within 
its pale. Nor is it because its teachers are often 
corrupt and its system of doctrine inadequate 
as a representation of the Truth — charges 
which have to be made more or less against 
all religions. But it is because it ministers 
falsely to the deepest need of man, reduces the 
end of religion to selfishness, and offers safety 
without spirituality. That these, theoretically, 
are its pretensions, we do not affirm ; but that 



318 SEMI-PA RA SITISM. 

its practical working is to induce in man, and 
in its worst forms, the parasitic habit, is testi- 
fied by results. No one who has studied the 
religion of the Continent upon the spot, has 
failed to be impressed with the appalling spec- 
tacle of tens of thousands of unregenerate 
men sheltering themselves, as tliey conceive it 
for Eternity, behind the Sacraments of Rome. 
There is no stronger evidence of tlie inborn 
parasitic tendency in man in things religious 
than the absolute complacency with which 
even cultured men will hand over their eternal 
interests to the cai^e of a Church. We can 
never dismiss from memory the sadness with 
which we once listened to the confession of a 
certain foreign professor : " I used to be con- 
cerned about religion," he said in substance, 
"but religion is a great subject. I was very 
busy ; there was little time to settle it for my- 
self. A Protestant, my attention was called to 
the Roman Catholic religion. It suited my case. 
And instead of dabbling in religion for myself I 
put myself in its hands. Once a year," he con- 
cluded, " I go to mass." These were the Avords 
of one whose work will live in the history of his 
country, one, too, who knew all about para- 
tism. Yet, though he thought it not, this is 
parasitism in its worst and most degrading 
form. Nor, in spite of its intellectual, not to 
say moral sin, is this an extreme or exceptional 
case. It is a case Avhicli is being duplicated 
every day in our own counia-y, only here the 
confession is expressed with a candor which 
is rare in company with actions betraying so 
signally the want of it. 



SEMI'PARA SITISM. 319 

The form of parasitism exhibited by a cer- 
tain section of the narrower Evangelical school 
is altogether different from that of the Church 
of Rome. The parasite in this case seeks its 
shelter, not in a Church, but in a Doctrine or a 
Creed. Let it be observed again that we are 
not dealing with the Evangelical Religion, but 
only with one of its parasitic forms — a form 
which will at once be recognized by all who 
know the popular Protestantism of this coun- 
try. We confine ourselves also at present to , 
that form which finds its encouragement in a 
single doctrine, that doctrine being a Doctrine 
of the Atonement — let us say, rather, a per- 
verted form of this central truth. 

The perverted Doctrine of the Atonement, 
which tends to beget the parasitic habit, may 
be defined in a single sentence — it is very much 
because it can be defined in a single sentence 
that it is a perversion. Let us state it in a 
concrete form. It is put to the individual in 
the following syllogism: "You believe Christ 
died for sinners ; you are a sinner ; therefore 
Christ died for you ; and hence you are savedP 
jSTow what is this but another species of mol- 
luscan shell? Could any trap for a benighted 
soul be more ingeniously planned? It is not 
superstition that is appealed to this time ; it is 
reason. The agitated soul is invited to creep 
into the convolutions of a syllogism, and en- 
trench itself behind a Doctrine more venerable 
even than the Church. But words are mere 
chitine. Doctrines may have no more vital 
contact with the soul than priest or sacrament, 



320 SEMI'PA EA SITISM. 

no further influence on life and character than 
stone and lime. And yet the apostles of par- 
asitism j)ick a blackguard from the streets, 
pass him through this plausible formula, and 
turn him out a convert in the space of as many 
minutes as it takes to tell it. 

The zeal of these men, assuredly, is not to be 
questioned; their instincts are riglit, and their 
work is often not in vain. It is possil)le, too, 
up to a certain point, to defend this Salvation 
by Formula. Are these not the very words of 
Scripture? Did not Christ Himself say, " It is 
finished"? And is it not Avi'itten, ''By grace 
are ye saved througli faith," " Not of works, 
lest any man should boast," and lie " that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life"? To 
which, however, one might also answer in the 
words of Scripture, " The Devils also believe," 
and " Except a man be born again he cannot 
see the Kingdom of God." But without seem- 
ing to make text refute text, let us ask rather 
w^hat the supposed convert possesses at the 
end of the process. That Christ saves sinners, 
even blackguards from the sti'eet, is a gieat 
fact ; and that the simple words of the street 
evangelist do sometimes biing this home to 
man with convincing power is also a fact. 
But in ordinary circumstances, wlien the in- 
quirer's mind is rapidly urged through the 
various stages of the above piece of logic, he is 
left to face the future and blot out the past 
with a formula of words. 

To be sure these words may already convey 
a germ of truth, they may yet be filled in with 



SEMI-PARA SITISM. 321 

a wealth of meaning and become a lifelong 
power. But we would state the case against 
Salvation by Formula with ignorant and 
unwarranted clemency did we for a moment 
convey the idea that this is always the actmil re- 
sult. The doctrine plays too well into the hands 
of the parasitic tendency to make it possible 
that in more than a minority of cases the result 
is anything but disastrous. And it is disastrous 
not in tliat, sooner or later, after losing half their 
lives, those who rely on the naked syllogism 
come to see their mistake, but in that thou- 
sands never come to see it all. Are there not 
men who can prove to you and to the world, 
by the irresistible logic of text, that the}^ are 
saved, whom you know to be not only unworthy 
of the Kingdom of God — which we all are — but 
absolutely incapable of entering it ? The con- 
dition of membership in the Kingdom of God 
is well known; who fulfil this condition and 
who do not, is not well known. And yet the 
moral test, in spite of the difficulty of its appli- 
cations, will always, and rightly, be preferred 
by the world to the theological. Nevertheless, 
in spite of the world's verdict, the parasite is 
content. He is " §afe." Years ago his mind 
worked through a certain chain of phrases in 
which the words " believe " and " saved " were 
the conspicuous terms. And from that mo- 
ment, by all Scriptures, by all logic, and by all 
theology, his future was guaranteed. He took 
out, in short, an insurance policy, by which he 
was infallibly secured eternal life at death. 
This is not a matter to make light of. We 

21 



322 SEMI-PA EA SITISM. 

wish we were caricaturing instead of represent- 
ing things as they are. But we carry with us 
all who intimately know the spiritual condition 
of the Narrow Church in asserting that in some 
cases at least its members have nothing more 
to show for their religion than a formula, a 
syllogism, a cant phrase, or an experience of 
some kind which happened long ago, and which 
men told them at the time was called Salvation. 
Need we proceed to formulate objections to the 
parasitism of Evangelicism ? Between it and 
the Reliction of the Church of Rome there is an 
affinity as real as it is unsuspected. For one 
thing these religions are spiritually disastrous 
as Well as theologically erroneous in propagat- 
ing a false conception of Christianity. The 
fundamental idea alike of the extreme Roman 
Catholic and extreme Evangelical Religions is 
Escape. Man's chief end is to " get off." And 
all factors in religion, the highest and most 
sacred, are degraded to this level. God, for 
example, is a Great Lawyer. Or he is the Al- 
mighty Enem.}^ ; it is from Ilim we have to 
"get off'." Jesus Christ is the One who gets 
us off — a theological figure who contrives so to 
adjust matters federally that the way is clear. 
The Church in the one instance is a kind of 
conveyancing office where the transaction is 
duly concluded, each party accepting the other's 
terms ; in the other case, a species of sheep-pen 
where the flock awaits impatiently and indo- 
lently the final consummation. Generally, the 
means are mistaken for the end, and tlie open- 
ing up of tlie possibility of s])iritual growth be- 
comes the signal to stop growins:. 



SEMI-PARASITISM. 823 

Second, these being cheap rehgions, are in- 
evitably accompanied by a cheap life. Safety 
being guaranteed from the first, there remains 
nothing else to be done. The mechanical way 
in which the transaction is effected, leaves the 
soul without stimulus, and the character re- 
mains untouched by the moral aspects of the 
sacrifice of Christ. He w^ho is unjust is unjust 
still ; he who is unholy is unholy still. Thus 
the whole scheme ministers to the Degeneration 
of Organs. For here, again, by just as much as 
the organism borrows mechanically from an 
external source, by so much exactly does it 
lose in its own organization. Whatever rest 
is provided by Christianity for the children of 
God, it is certainly never contemplated that it 
should supersede, personal effort. And any 
rest which ministers to indifference is immoral 
and unreal — it makes parasites and not men. 
Just because God worketh in him, as the evi- 
dence and triumph of it, the true child of God 
works out his own salvation — works it out hav- 
ing really received it — not as a light thing, a 
superfluous labor, but with fear and trembling 
as a reasonable and indispensable service. 

It it be asked, then, shall the parasite be 
saved or shall he not, the answer is that the 
idea of salvation conveyed by the question 
makes a reply all but hopeless. But if by 
salvation is meant, a trusting in Christ in order 
to likeness to Christy in order to that holiness 
without which no man shall see the Lord, the re- 
ply is that the parasite's hope is absolutely vain. 
So far from ministering to growth, parasitism 



324 SEMI-FAR ASITIS2L 

ministers to decay. So far from ministering 
to holiness, that is to loholeness^ parasitism 
ministers to exactly the opposite. C3ne by one 
the spiritual faculties droop and die, one by 
one from lack of exercise the muscles of the 
soul grow weak and flaccid, one by one the 
moral activities cease. So from him that hath 
not, is taken away that which he hath, and 
after a few years of parasitism there is noth- 
ing left to save. 

If our meaning up to this point has been 
sufficiently obscure to make the objection now 
possible that this protest against Parasitism is 
opposed to the doctrines of Free Grace, we 
cannot hope in a closing sentence to free the 
argument from a suspicion so ill-judged. The 
adjustment between Faith and Works does 
not fall within our province now. Salvation 
truly is the free gift of God, but he who really 
knows how much this means knows — and just 
because it means so much — how much of conse- 
quent action it involves. With the central' 
doctrines of grace the whole scientific argu- 
ment is in too wonderful harmony to be found 
wanting here. The natural life, not less than 
the eternal, is the gift of God. But life in 
either case is the beginning of growth and not 
the end of grace. To pause where we should 
begin, to retrograde where we should advance, 
to seek a mechanical security that we may 
cover inertia and find a wholesale salvation in 
which there is no personal sanctification — this 
is Parasitism. 



PARASITISM. 



** And so I live, you see, 
Go through the world, try, prove, reject, 
Prefer, still struggling to effect 
My warfare ; happy that I can 
Be crossed and tiiwarted as a man, 
Not left in God's contempt apart, 
With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart, 
Tame in earth's paddock as her prize. 

^f -X- * ijf * 

Thank God, no paradise stands barred 
To entry, and I find it hard 
To be a Christian, as I said." 

Brownij^G. 



PARASITISM. 

*' Work out your own salvation." — Paul. 

" Be no longer a chaos, but a World, or even World- 
kin. Produce ! Produce ! Were it but the pitifullest 
infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it, in God's 
name !" — Carlyle, 

From a study of the habits and organization 
of the family of Hermit-crabs we have already 
gained some insight into the nature and effects 
of parasitism. But the Hermit-crab, be it re- 
membered, is in no real sense a parasite. And 
before we can apply the general principle 
further we must address ourselves briefly to 
the examination of a true case of parasitism. 

We have not far to seek. Within the body 
of the Hermit-crab a minute organism may 
frequently be discovered resembling, when 
magnified, a miniature kidney-bean. A bunch 
of root-like processes hangs from one side, and 
the extremities of these are seen to ramify in 
delicate films through the living tissues of the 
crab. This simple organism is known to the 
naturalist as a Sacculina ; and though a full- 
grown animal, it consists of no more parts than 
those just named. Not a trace of structure is 
to be detected within this rude and all but in- 
animate frame ; it possesses neither legs, nor 
eyes, nor mouth, nor throat, nor stomach, nor 



328 PARASITISM. 

any other organs, external or internal. This 
Sacculina is a typical parasite. By means of 
its twining and theftuous roots it imbibes 
automatically its nourishment ready-prepared 
from the body of the crab. It boards indeed 
entirely at the expense of its host, who supplies 
it liberally with food and shelter and every- 
thing else it w^ants. So far as the result to 
itself is concerned this arrangement may seem 
at first sight satisfactory enough ; but Avhen we 
inquire into the life history of this small 
creature we unearth a career of degeneracy all 
but unparalleled in nature. 

The most certain clue to what nature meant 
any animal to become is to be learned from its 
embryology. Let us, therefore, examine for a 
moment the earliest positive stage in the de- 
velopment of the Sacculina. When the embryo 
first makes its appearance it bears not the re- 
motest resemblance to the adult animal. A 
different name even is given to it by the biologist, 
who knows it at this period as a Nauplius. This 
minute organism has an oval body, supplied 
with six vv^ell-jointed feet by means of which 
it paddles briskly through the water. For a 
time it leads an active and independent life, in- 
dustriously securing its own food and escap- 
ing enemies by its own gallantry. But soon a 
change takes place. The hereditary taint of 
parasitism is in its blood, and it proceeds to 
adapt itself to the pauper habits of its race. 
The tiny body first doubles in upon itself, and 
from the two front limbs elongated filaments 
protrude. Its four hind limlDS entirely dis- 



PARASITISM. 329 

appear, and twelve short-forked swimmiDg 
organs temporarily take their place. Thus 
strangely metamoi'phosed the Saccuiina sets out 
in search of a suitable host, and in an evil hour, 
by that fate which is always ready to accom- 
modate the transgressor, is thrown into the 
company of the Hermit-crab. With its two 
filamentary processes — which afterwards de- 
velop into the root-like organs — it penetrates 
the body ; the sac-like form is gradually as- 
sumed ; the whole of the swimming feet drop 
off, — they will never he needed again, — and 
the animal settles down for the rest of its life 
as a parasite. 

One reason which makes a zoologist certain 
that the Saccuiina is a degenerate type is, that 
in almost all other instances of animals which 
begin life in the N'auplius-form — and there are 
several — the [N'auplius develops through higher 
and higher stages, and arrives finally at the 
high perfection displayed by the shrimp, lob- 
ster, crab, and other crustaceans. But instead 
of rising to its opportunities, the sacculine 
Nauplius having reached a certain point turned 
back. It shrunk from the struggle for life, and 
beginning probably by seeking shelter from its 
host went on to demand its food ; and so fall- 
ing from bad to worse, became in time an entire 
dependant. 

In the eyes of Mature this was a twofold 
crime. It was first a disi'egard of evolution, 
and second, which is practically the same thing, 
an evasion of the great laAV of work. And the 
revenge of Nature was therefore necessary. 



330 PARASITISM, 

It could not help punishing the Sacculina for 
violated law, and the punishment, according 
to the strange and noteworthy way in which 
Nature usually punishes, was meted out by 
natural processes, carried on within its own 
organization. Its punishment was simply that 
it was a Sacculina — that it Avas a Saccuhna 
Avhen it might have been a Crustacean. In- 
stead of being a free and independent organism 
high in structure, original in action, vital with 
energy, it deteriorated into a torpid and all but 
amorphous sac confined to perpetual imprison- 
ment and doomed to a living death. " Any new 
set of conditions," says Ray Lankester, " oc- 
curring to an animal which render its food and 
safety very easily attained, seem to lead as a 
rule to degeneration ; just as an active healthy 
man sometimes degenerates when he becomes 
suddenly possessed of a fortune ; or as Rome 
degenerated when possessed of the riches of 
the ancient world. The habit of parasitism 
clearly acts upon animal organization in this 
way. Let the parasitic life once be secured, 
and away go legs, jaws, eyes, and ears ; the 
active, highly-gifted crab, insect, or annelid 
may become a mere sac, absorbing nourishment 
and laying eggs." ^ 

There could be no more impressive illustra- 
tion than this of what with entire appropriate- 
ness one might call " the physiology of back- 
sliding." We fail to appreciate the meaning 
of spiiitual degeneration or detect the terrible 

1 " Degeneration," by E. Ray Lankester, p. 33. 



PARASITISM, 331 

nature of the consequences only because they 
eTade the eye of sense. But could we investi- 
gate the 'spirit as a living organism, or study 
the soul of the backslider on principles of com- 
parative anatomy, we should have a revelation 
of the organic effects of sin, even of the mere 
sin of carelessness as to growth and work, 
which must revolutionize our ideas of practi- 
cal religion. There is no room for the doubt 
even that wdrat goes on in the body does not 
with equal certainty take place in the spirit 
under the corresponding conditions. 

The penalty of backsliding is not something 
unreal and vague, some unknown quantity 
which may be measured out to us dispropor- 
tionately, or Avhich perchance, since God is 
good, we may altogether evade. The con- 
sequences are already marked within the 
structure of the soul. So to speak, they are 
physiological. The thing affected by our in- 
difference or by our indulgence is not the book 
of final judgment but the present fabric of the 
soul. The punishment of degeneration is sim- 
pi}^ degeneration — the loss of functions, the 
decay of organs, the atrophy of the spiritual 
nature. It is well known that the recovery 
of the backslider is one of the hardest prob- 
lems in spiritual work. To reinvigorate an 
old organ seems more difficult and hopeless 
than to develop a new one; and the back- 
slider's terrible lot is to have to retrace with 
enfeebled feet each step of the w^ay along 
which he strayed ; to make up inch by inch 
the lee- way he has lost, carrying with him a 



332 PARASITISM. 

dead- weight of acquired reluctance, and scarce 
knowing whether to be stimulated or dis- 
couraged by the oppressive memory of the pre- 
vious fall. 

We are not, however, to discuss at present 
the physiology of bacl^sliding. Nor need Ave 
point out at greater length that parasitism is 
always and indissolubly accompanied by de- 
generation. We wish ratlier to examine one 
or two leading tendencies of the modern re- 
ligious life which directly or indirectly induce 
the parasitic habit and bring upon thousands 
of unsuspecting victims such secret and ap- 
palling penalties as have been named. 

Two main causes are known to the biologist 
as tending to induce the parasitic habit. These 
are, first, the temptation to secure safety with- 
out the vital exercise of faculties, and, second, 
the disposition to find food without earning it. 
The first, which we have formally considered, 
is probably the preliminary stage in most 
cases. The animal, seeking shelter, finds un- 
expectedly that it can also thereby gain a cer- 
tain measure of food. Compelled in the first 
instance, perhaps by stress of circumstances, 
to rob its host of a meal or perish, it gradually 
acquires the habit of drawing all its supplies 
from the same source, and thus becomes in 
time a confirmed parasite. Whatever be its 
origin, however, it is certain that the main evil 
of parasitism is connected with the further 
question of food. Mere safety with Nature is 
a secondary, though by no means an insignifi- 
cant, consideration. And while the organism 



\ PABASITISM. 333 



V 



rfeits a part of its organization by any method 
of evading enemies wliich demands no per- 
sonal effort, the most entire degeneration of 
tr^e whole system follows the neglect or abuse 
of the functions of nutrition. 

Tlie direction in whicli we have to seek the 
wider application of the subject will now ap- 
pear. We have to look into those cases in the 
moral and spiritual sphere in which the func- 
tions of nutrition are either neglected or abused. 
To sustain life, physical, mental, moral, or 
spiritual, some sort of food is essential. To 
secure an adequate supply each organism also 
is provided with special and appropriate facul- 
ties. But the final gain to the organism does 
not depend so much on the actual amount of 
food procured as on the exercise required to 
obtain it. In one sense the exercise is only a 
means to an end, namel^^, the finding food; 
but in another and equally real sense, the ex- 
ercise is the end, the food the means to attain 
that. Is'either is of permanent use without 
the other, but the correlation between them is 
so intimate that it were idle to say that one 
is more necessary than the other. Without 
food exercise is impossible, but without exer- 
cise food is useless. 

Thus exercise is in order to food, and food 
is in order to exercise — in order especially to 
that further progress and maturity whicli only 
ceaseless activity can promote. jNTow food too 
easily acquired means food without that ac- 
companiment of discipline which is infinitely 
more valuable than the food itself. It means 



334 PARASITISM. 

the possibility of a life which is a mere exist- 
ence. It leaves the organism in static qita^ 
undeveloped, immature, low in the scale of 
organization and with a growing tendency to 
pass from the state of equilibrium to that of 
increasing degeneration. What an organism 
is depends upon what it does ; its activities 
make it. And if the stimulus to the exercise 
of all the innumei-able faculties concerned 
in nutrition be withdrawn by the conditions 
and circumstances of life becoming, or being 
made to become, too easy, there is first an ar- 
rest of development, and finally a loss of the 
parts themselves. If, in short, an organism 
does nothing in that relation it is nothing. 

We may, therefore, formulate the general 
principle thus : Any princijjle ichich secures 
food to the individual vnthout the expenditure 
of work is injurious^ and accompanied by the 
degeneration and loss of 2yarts, 

The social and political analogies of this law, 
which have been casually referred to already, 
are sufficiently familiar to render any further 
development in these directions superfluous. 
After the eloquent preaching of the Gospel of 
Work by Thomas Carlyle, this century at least 
can never plead that one of the most impor- 
tant moral bearings of tlie subject has not 
been duly impressed upon it. All that can be 
said of idleness generally might be fitly urged 
in support of this great practical truth. All 
nations which have prematurely passed away, 
buried in graves dug by their own effeminacy ; 
all those individuals who have secured a hasty 



PAEASITISM. 335 

wealth by the chances of speculation ; all chil- 
dren of fortune ; all victims of inheritance ; all 
social sponges ; all satellites of the court ; all 
beggars of the market-place — all these are 
living and unlying witnesses to the unaltera- 
ble retributions of the law of parasitism. But 
it is when we come to study the working of 
the principle in the religious sphere that we 
discover the full extent of the ravages which 
the parasitic habit can make on the souls of 
men. We can only hope to indicate here one 
or two of the things in modern Christianity 
whicii minister most subtly and widely to this 
as yet all but unnamed sin. 

We begin in Avhat •may seem a somewhat 
unlooked-for quarter. One of the things in 
the religious world which tends most strongly 
to induce the parasitic habit is Going to Church. 
Church-going itself every Christian will rightly 
consider an invaluable aid to the ripe develop- 
ment of the spiritual life. Public worship has 
a place in the national religious life so firmly 
established that nothing is ever likely to shake 
its influence. So supreme, indeed, is the ec- 
clesiastical system in all Christian countries 
that with thousands the religion of the Church 
and the religion of the individual are one. But 
just because of its high and unique place in 
religious regard, does it become men from time 
to time to inquire how far the Church is really 
ministering to the spiritual health of the im- 
mense religious community which looks to it 
as its foster-mother. And if it falls to us here 
reluctantly to expose some secret abuses of 



336 PARASITISM, 

this venerable system, let it be well under- 
stood that these are abuses, and not that the 
sacred institution itself is being violated by 
the attack of an impious hand. 

The danger of church-going largely depends 
on the form of worship, but it may be affirmed 
that even the most perfect Church affords to 
all worshippers a greater or less temptation 
to parasitism. It consists essentially in the 
deputy-work or deputy-worship inseparable 
from church or chapel ministrations. One man 
is set apart to prepare a certain amount of 
spiritual truth for the rest. He, if he is a true 
man, gets all the benefits of original work. 
He finds the truth, digests it, is nourished and 
enriched by it before he offers it to his flock. 
To a large extent it will nourish and enricli in 
turn a number of his hearers. But still they 
will lack something. The faculty of selecting 
truth at first hand and appropriating it for 
one's self is a lawful possession to every Chris- 
tian. Rightly exercised it conveys to him 
truth in its freshest form; it offers him the 
opportunity of verifying doctrines for himself; 
it makes religion personal ; it deepens and in- 
tensifies the only convictions that are worth 
deepening, those, namely, which are honest ; 
and it supplies the mind with a basis of cer- 
tainty in religion. But if all one's truth is 
derived by imbibition from the Church, the 
faculties for receiving truth are not only 
undeveloped but one's whole view of truth 
becomes distortedo He who abandons the per- 
sonal search for truth, under whatever pre- 



PAIIASITISM. 837 

text, abandons truth. The very word truth, 
by becommg the Umited possession of a guild, 
ceases to have any meaning ; and faith, which 
can only be founded on truth, gives way to 
credulity, resting on mere opinion. 

In those churches especially where all parts 
of the worship are subordinated to the sermon, 
this species of parasitism is peculiarly encour- 
aged. What is meant to be a stimulus to 
thought becomes the substitute for it. The 
hearer never really learns, he only listens. 
And while truth and knowledge seem to in- 
crease, life and character are left in arrear. 
Such truth, of course, and such knowledge, 
are a mere seeming. Having cost nothing, 
they come to nothing. The organism acquires 
a growing immobility, and finally exists in a 
state of entire intellectual helplessness and 
inertia. So the parasitic Church-member, the 
literal "adherent," comes not merely to live 
only within the circle of ideas of his minister, 
but to be content that his minister has these 
ideas — like the literary parasite who fancies 
he knows everything because he has a good 
library. 

Where the worship, again, is largely liturgi- 
cal the danger assumes an even more serious 
form, and it acts in some such way as this. 
Every sincere man who sets out in the Chris- 
tian race begins by attempting to exercise the 
spiritual faculties for himself. The young life 
throbs in his veins, and he sets himself to the 
further progress with earnest purpose and 
resolute will. For a time he bids fair to 
22 



338 PABASiriSM. 

attain a high and origmal development. But 
the temptation to relax the always difficult 
effort at spirituality is greater than he knows. 
The " carnal mind" itself is " enmity against 
God," and the antipathy, or the deadlier 
apathy within, is unexpectedly encouraged 
from that very outside source from which he 
anticipates the greatest help. Connecting him- 
self with a Church he is no less interested than 
surprised to find how rich is the provision 
there for every part of his spiritual nature. 
Each service satisfies or surfeits. Twice, or 
even three times a week, this feast is spread 
for him. The thoughts are deeper than his 
own, the faith keener, the worship loftier, the 
whole ritual more reverent and splendid. 
What more natural than that he should grad- 
ually exchange his personal religion for that 
of the congregation ? What more likely than 
that a public religion should by insensible 
stages supplant his individual faith? What 
more simple than to content himself with the 
warmth of another's soul? What more tempt- 
ing than to give up private prayer for the 
easier worship of the liturgy or of the church? 
What, in short, more natural than for the in- 
dependent, free-moving, growing Sacculiua to 
degenerate into the listless, useless, pampered 
parasite of the pew? The very means he 
takes to nurse his personal religion often come 
in time to w^ean him from it. Hanging admir- 
ingly, or even enthusiastically, on the lips of 
eloquence, his senses now stirred by ceremony, 
now soothed by music, the parasite of the pew 



PARASITISM. 339 

enjoys his weekly worship — his character un- 
touched, his will unbraced, his crude soul un- 
quickened and unimproved. Thus, instead of 
ministering to the growth of individual mem- 
bers, and very often just in proportion to the 
superior excellence of the provision made for 
them by another, does this gigantic system of 
deputy-nutrition tend to destroy development 
and arrest the genuine culture of the soul. 
Our churches overflow with members who are 
mere consumers. Their interest in religion is 
purely parasitic. Their only spiritual exercise 
is the automatic one of imbibition, the clergy- 
man being the faithful Hermit-crab who is to 
be depended on every Sunday for at least a 
week's supply. 

A physiologist would describe the organism 
resulting from such a process as a case of 
"arrested development." Instead of having 
learned to pray, the ecclesiastical parasite be- 
comes satisfied with being prayed for. His 
transactions with, the Eternal are effected by 
commission. His work for Christ is done by 
a paid deputy. His whole life is a prolonged 
indulgence in the bounties of the Church ; and 
surely — in some cases at least the crowning 
irony — he sends for the minister when he lies 
down to die. 

Other signs and consequences of this species 
of parasitism soon become very apparent. The 
first symptom is idleness. When a Church is 
off its true diet it is off its true work. Hence 
one explanation of the hundreds of large and 
influential congregations ministered to from 



340 PABASITISM. 

^Yeek to v/eek by men of eminent learning and 
earnestness, which yet do little or nothing in 
the line of tiiese special activities for whicli all 
churches exist. An outstanding man at tlie 
head of a huge, useless and torpid congregation 
is always a puzzle. But is the reason not this, 
that the congregation gets too good food too 
cheap ? Providence has mercifully delivered 
the Church from too many great men in her 
pulpits, but there are enough in every country- 
side to play tlie host disastrously to a large 
circle of otherwise able-bodied Christian people, 
who, thrown on their own resources, might 
fatten themselves and help others. There are 
compensations to a flock for a poor minister 
after all. Where tlie fare is indifferent those 
who are really hungry will exert themselves to 
procure their own supply. 

That the Church has indispensable functions 
to discharge to the individual is not denied ; 
but taking into consideration the universal 
tendency to parasitism in the human soul, it 
is a grave question whether in some cases it 
does not really effect more harm than good. 
A dead church certainly, a church having no 
reaction on the community, a church without 
propagative power in the world, cannot be other 
than a calamity to all within its borders. Such 
a church is an institution, first for making, 
then for screening parasites; and instead of 
representing to tlie world the Kingdom of God 
on earth, it is despised alike by godly and by 
godless men as the refuge for fear and for- 
malism and the nursery of superstition. 



PARASITISM, 841 

And this suggests a second and not less 
practical evil of a parasitic piety — that it 
presents to the world a false conception of the 
religion of Christ. One notices with a fre- 
quency which may well excite alarm that the 
children of church-going parents often break 
away as they grow in intelligence, not only from 
church-connection but from the whole system 
of family religion. In some cases this is doubt- 
less due to natural perversit}^, but in others it 
certainly arises from the holloAvness of the out- 
ward forms which pass current in society and at 
home for vital Christianity. These spurious 
forms, fortunately or unfortunately, soon betray 
themselves. How little there is in them be- 
comes gradually apparent. And rather than 
indulge m a sham the budding sceptic, as the 
first step, parts with the form, and in nine 
cases out of ten concerns himself no further to 
find a substitute. Quite deliberately, quite 
honestly, sometimes with real regret and even 
at personal sacrifice, he takes up his position, 
and to his parent's sorrow and his church's 
dishonor forsakes forever the faith and re- 
ligion of his fathers. Who will deny that this 
is a true account of the natural histor3rof much 
modern scepticism ? A formal religion can 
never hold its own in the nineteenth century. 
It is better that it should not. We must either 
be real or cease to ^>e. We must either give 
up our Parasitism or our sons. 

Any one who will take the trouble to investi- 
gate a number of cases, Avhere whole families 
of outwardly godly parents have gone astray. 



342 PARASITISM, 

will probably find that the household religion 
had either some palpable defect, or belonged 
essentially to the parasitic order. The popular 
belief that the sons of clergymen turn out 
worse than those of the laity is, of course, with- 
out foundation ; but it may also probably be 
verified that in the instances where clergymen's 
sons notoriously discredit their father's minis- 
try, that ministry in a majority of cases will be 
found to be professional and theological rather 
than human and spiritual. Sequences in the 
moral arid spiritual world follow more closely 
than we yet discern the great law of Heredity. 
The Parasite begets the Parasite — only in the 
second generation the offspring are sometimes 
sufficiently wise to make the discovery, and 
honest enough to prochiim it. 

We now pass on to the consideration of an- 
other form of Parasitism which, though closely 
related to that just discussed, is of sufficient 
importance to justify a separate reference. 
Appealing to a somewhat smaller circle, but 
affecting it not less disastrously, is the Para- 
sitism induced by certain abuses of Systems of 
Theology. 

In its own place, of course, Theology is no 
more to be dispensed with than the Church. 
In every perfect religious system three great 
departments must always be represented — 
criticism, dogmatism, and evangelism. With- 
out the first there is no guarantee of truth, 
without the second no defence of truth, and 
without the third no propagation of truth. 
But when these departments become mixed up, 



PARASITISM. 343 

when their separate functions are forgotten, 
when one is made to do duty for another, or 
where either is developed by the church or the 
individual at the expense of the rest, the result 
is fatal. The particular abuse, however, of 
which we have now to speak, concerns the 
tendency in orthodox communities, first to exalt 
orthodoxy above all other elements in religion, 
and secondly to make the possession of sound 
beliefs equivalent to the possession of truth. 

Doctrinal preaching, fortunately, as a con- 
stant practice is loss in vogue than in a former 
age, but there are still large numbers whose 
only contact with religion is through theo- 
logical forms. The method is supported by 
a plausible defence. What is doctrine but a 
compressed form of truth, systematized by 
able and pious men, and sanctioned by the 
imprimatur of the Church? If the greatest 
minds of the Church's past, having exercised 
themselves profoundly upon the problems of 
religion, formulated as with one voice a system 
of doctrine, why should the humble inquirer 
not gratefully accept it? Why go over the 
ground again ? Why with his dim light should 
he betake himself afresh to Bible study and 
with so great a body of divinity already com- 
piled, presume himself to be still a seeker after 
truth? Does not Theology give him Bible 
truth in reliable, convenient and moreover, in 
logical propositions? There it lies extended 
to the last detail in the tomes of the Fathers, 
or abridged in a hundred modern compendia 
ready-made to his hand, all cut and dry, guar- 
anteed sound and wholesome, why not use it ? 



344 FAUASlTloJI. 

Just because it is all cut and dry. Just 
because it is ready-made. Just because it lies 
there in reliable, convenient and logical prop- 
ositions. The moment you appropriate truth 
in such a shape you appropriate a form. You 
cannot cut and dry truth. You cannot accept 
truth ready-made without it ceasing to nourish 
the soul as truth. You cannot live on theo- 
logical forms without becoming a Parasite and 
ceasing to be a man. 

There is no worse enemy to a living Church 
than a propositional theology, with the latter 
controUmg the former by traditional authority. 
For one does not then receive the truth for 
himself, he accepts it bodily. He begins the 
Christian life set up by his Church with a 
stock-in-trade which has cost him nothing, and 
which, though it may serve him all his life, is 
just exactly worth as much as his belief in his 
Church. This possession of truth, moreover, 
thus lightly won, is given to him as infallible. 
It is a system. There is nothing to add to it. 
At his peril let him question or take from it. 
To start a convert in life with such a principle 
is unspeakably degrading. All through life 
instead of working towards truth he must 
work from it. An infallible standard is a 
temptation to a mechanical faith. Infallibility 
always paralyzes. It gives rest ; but it is the 
rest of stagnation. Men perform one great act 
of faith at the beginning of their life, then have 
done with it forever. All moral, intellectual 
and spiritual effort is over; and a cheap the- 
ology ends in a cheap life. 



PARASITISM, 345 

The same thing that makes men take refuge 
in the Church of Rome makes them take refuge 
in a set of dogmas. InfaUibihty meets the 
deepest desire of man, but meets it in the most 
fatal form. Men deal with the hunger after 
truth in two ways. First by Unbelief — which 
crushes it by blind force; or, secondly, by 
resorting to some external source credited with 
Infallibility- — which lulls it to sleep by blind 
faith. The effect of a doctrinal theology is the 
effect of Infallibility. And the wholesale belief 
in such a system, however accurate it may 
be^grant even that it were infallible — is not 
Faitli though it always gets that name. It is 
mere Credulity. It is a complacent and idle 
rest upon authority, not a hard-earned, self- 
obtained, personal possession. The moral 
responsibility here, besides, is reduced to 
nothing. Those who framed the Thirty-nine 
Articles or the Westminster Confession are 
responsible. And anything which destroys 
responsibility, or transfers it, cannot be other 
than injurious in its moral tendency and use- 
less in itself. 

It may be objected perhaps that this state- 
ment of the paralysis spiritual and mental 
induced by Infallibility applies also to the 
Bible. The answer is that though the Bible is 
infallible, the Infallibility is not in such a form 
as to become a temptation. There is the 
widest possible difference between the form of 
truth in the Bible and the form in theology. 

In theology truth is propositional — tied up 
in neat parcels, systematized, and arranged iii 



346 PARASITISM. 

logical order. The Trinity is an intricate 
doctrinal problem. The Supreme Being is 
discussed in terms of philosophy. The Atone- 
ment is a formula which is to be demonstrated 
like a proposition in Euclid. And Justification 
is to be worked out as a question of jurispru- 
dence. There is no necessary connection be- 
tween these doctrines and the life of him who 
holds them. They make him orthodox, not 
necessarily righteous. They satisfy the intel- 
lect but need not toucli the heart. It does not, 
in short, take a religious man to be a theologian. 
It simply takes a man with fair reasoning 
powers. This man happens to apply tliese 
powers to theological subjects — but in nootlier 
sense tlian he might apply tliem to astronomy or 
physics. But trutli in the Bible is a fountain. 
It is a diffused nutriment, so diffused tliat no 
one can put himself off with the form. It is 
reached not by thinking, but by doing. It is 
seen, discerned, not demonstrated. It cannot 
be bolted w^hole, but must be slowly absorbed 
into the system. Its vagueness to the mere 
intellect, its refusal to be packed into portable 
phrases, its satisfying unsatisfyingness, its 
vast atmosphere, its finding of us, its mystical 
hold of us, these are the tokens of its infinity. 
Nature never provides for man's wants in any 
direction, bodily, mental, or spiritual, in such 
a form as that he can simply accept her gifts 
automatically. She puts all the mechanical 
powers at his disposal — but he must make his 
lever. She gives him corn, but he must grind 
it. She elaborates coal, but he must dig for it. 



PARASITISM, 347 

Corn is perfect, all the products of Nature are 
perfect, but he has everything to do to them 
before he can use them. So witli truth ; it is 
perfect, infallible. But he cannot use it as it 
stands. He must work, think separate, dis- 
solve, absorb, digest ; and most of these he 
must do for himself and within himself. If it 
be replied that thi^s is exactly what theology 
does, we answer it is exactly what it does not. 
It simply does what the greengrocer does when 
he arranges his apples and plums in his shop- 
window. He may tell me a magnum bonum 
from a Victoria, or a Baldwin from a Newton 
Pippin. But he does not help me to eat it. 
His information is useful, and for scientific 
horticulture essential. Should a sceptical 
pomologist deny that there was such a thing 
as a Baldwin, or mistake it for a Newton Pip- 
pin, we should be glad to refer to him ; but 
if we were hungry, and an orchard were handy, 
we should not trouble him. Truth in the Bible 
is an orchard rather than a museum. Dogma- 
tism will be very valuable to us when scientific 
necessity makes us go to the museum. Criti- 
cism will be very useful in seeing that only 
fruit-bearers grow in the orchard. But truth 
in the doctrinal form is not natural, proper, 
assimilable food for the soul of man. 

Is this a plea then for doubt ? Yes, for that 
philosophic doubt which is the evidence of a 
faculty doing its own work. It is more neces- 
sary for us to be active than to be orthodox. 
To be orthodox is what we wish to be, but we 
can only truly reach it by being honest, by 



o 



48 PAEASITIS2I. 



being original, by seeing with our own eyes, by 
believing with our own heart. "An idle life," 
says Goethe, "is death anticipated." Better 
far be burned at the stake of Public Opinion 
than die the living death of Parasitism. 13etter 
an aberrant theology than a suppressed organi- 
zation. Better a little faith dearly won, better 
launched alone on the infinite bewilderment of 
Truth, than perish on the 'splendid plenty of 
the richest creeds. Such Doubt is no self- 
willed presumption. Nor, truly exercised, will 
it prove itself, as much doubt does, the synonym 
for sorrow. It aims at a lifelong learning, pre- 
pared for any sacrifice of will, yet for none 
of independence; at that high progressive 
educati(5n which yields rest in work and work 
in rest, and the development of immortal facul- 
ties in both ; at that deeper faith which believes 
in the vastness and variety of the revelations 
of God, and their accessibility to all obedient 
hearts. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



**I judge of the order of the world, although I 
know not its end, because to judge of this order I only 
need mutually to compare the parts, to study their 
functions, their relations, and to remark their concert. 
I know not why the universe exists, but I do not 
desist from seeing how it is modified ; I do not cease 
to see the intimate agreement by which the beings that 
compose it render a mutual help. I am like a man 
who should see for the first time an open watch, who 
should not cease to admire the workmanship of it, 
although he knows not the use of the machine, and 
had never seen dials. I do not know, he would say, 
what all this is for, but I see that each piece is made 
for the others ; I admire the worker in the detail of 
his work, and I am very sure that all these wheel- 
works only go thus in concert for a commonend which 
I cannot perceive." Rousseau. 



CLASSIFICATION. 

" That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." — Christ, 

^' In early attempts to arrange organic beings in some 
systematic manner, we see at first a guidance by conspicu- 
ous and simple characters, and a tendency towards ar- 
rangement in linear order. In successively later at- 
tempts, we see more regard paid to combinations of 
character which are essential but often inconspicuous ; 
and a gradual abandonment of a linear arrangement." — 
Herbert Spencer, 

On one of the shelves in a certain museum 
lie two small boxes filled with earth. A low 
mountain in Arran has furnished the first ; the 
contents of the second came from the Island of 
Barbadoes. When examined with a pocket 
lens, the Arran earth is found to be full of 
small objects, clear as crystal, fashioned by 
some mysterious geometry into forms of ex- 
quisite symmetry. The substance is silica, a 
natural glass ; and the prevailing shape is a 
six-sided prism capped at either end by little 
pyramids modelled with consummate grace. 

W^n the second specimen is examined, the 
revelation is, if possible, more surprising. 
Here, also, is a vast assemblage of small glassy 
or porcellaneous objects built up into curious 
forms. The mnrterial, chemically, remains the 
same, but the angles of pyramid and prism have 



352 CLASSIFICATION, 

given place to curved lines, so that the contour 
is entirely different. The appearance is that 
of a vast collection of microscopic urns, gob- 
lets, and vases, each richly ornamented with 
small sculptured discs or perforations which 
are disposed over the pure white surface in 
regular belts and rows. Each tiny urn is 
chiselled into the most faultless proportion, 
and the Avhole presents a vision of magic 
beauty. 

Judged by the standard of their loveliness 
there is little to choose between these two sets 
of objects. Yet there is one cardinal difference 
between them. They belong to different 
worlds. The last belong to the living world, 
the former to the dead. The first are crystals, 
the last are shells. 

ISTo power on earth can make these little urns 
of the FolycystincB except Life. We can melt 
them down in the laboratory, but no ingenuity 
of chemistry can reproduce their sculptured 
forms. We are sure that Life has formed 
them, however, for tiny creatures allied to those 
which made the Barbadoes' earth are Hving 
still, fashioning their fairy palaces of flint in 
the same mysterious way. On the other hand, 
chemistry has no difficulty in making these 
crystals. We can melt down this Arran earth 
and reproduce the pyramids and prisms in end- 
less numbers. Nay, if we do melt it down, we 
cannot help reproducing the pyi'amid and the 
l^jrisni. There is a six-sidedness, as it were, in 
the very natui-e of this snbstniice wliich will 
infalliV)ly manifest itself if the crystallizing 



CLASSIFICATION. 353 

substance only be allowed fair play. This six- 
sided tendency is its Law of Crystallization — 
a law of its nature which it cannot resist. But 
in the crystal there is nothing at all correspond- 
ing to Life. There is simply an inherent force 
which can be called into action at any moment, 
and which cannot be separated from the par- 
ticles in which it resides. The crystal may be 
ground to pieces, but this force remains intact. 
And even after being reduced to powder, and 
running the gauntlet of every process in the 
chemical laboratory, the moment the substance 
is left to itself under possible conditions it will 
proceed to recrystallize anew. But if the 
Polycystine urn be broken, no inorganic agency 
can build it up again. So far as any inherent 
urn-building power, analogous to the crystal- 
line force, is concerned, it might lie there in 
a shapeless mass forever. That which mod- 
elled it at first is gone from it. It was Vital ; 
while the force which built the crystal was only 
Molecular. 

From an artistic point of view this distinc- 
tion is of small importance, ^sthetically, the 
Law of Crystallization is probably as useful 
in ministering to natural beauty as Vitality. 
What are more beautiful than the crystals of a 
snowflake? Or what frond of fern or feather 
of bird can vie with the tracery of the frost 
upon a window-pane? Can it be said that the 
lichen is more lovely than the striated crystals 
of the granite on which it grows, or the moss 
on the mountain-side more satisfying than the 
hidden amethyst and cairngorm in the rock 

23 



854 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

beneath ? Or is the botanist more astonished 
when his microscope reveals the architecture 
of spiral tissue in the stem of a plant, or the 
mineralogist who beholds for the first time the 
chaos of beauty in the sliced specimen of some 
common stone? So far as beauty goes the 
organic world and the inorganic are one. 

To the man of science, however, this identity 
of beauty signifies nothing. Ilis concern, in the 
first instance, is not with the forms but with the 
natures of things. It is no valid answer to him, 
when he asks the difference between the moss 
and the cairngorm, the frost-work and the rn, 
to be assured that both are beautiful. "Foi no 
fundamental distinction in Science depends 
upon beauty. He wants an answer in terms of 
chemistry, are they organic or inorganic? or in 
terms of biology, are they living r dead ." Bu 
when he is told tliat the one is 'iving and the 
other dead, he is in possession of a characteristic 
and fundamental scientific distinction. From 
this point of view, however much they may 
possess in common of material substance and 
beauty, they are separated from one another 
by a wide and unbridged gulf. The lassifica- 
tion of these forms, therefore, depends upon 
the standpoint, and we should pronounce them 
like or unlike, related or unrelated, according 
as we judged them from the point of view of 
Art or Science. 

The drift of these introductory paragraphs 
must already be apparent. We propose to in- 
quire whether among men, clothed apparently 
with a common beauty of character, there may 



CLASSIFICATION. 355 

not yet be distinctions as radical as between 
the crystal and the shell ; and, further, whether 
the current classification of men, based upon 
Moral Beauty, is wholly satisfactory either 
from the stand.point of Science or of Christian- 
ity. Here, for example, are tAvo characters, 
pure and elevated, adorned with conspicuous 
virtues, stirred by lofty impulses, and com- 
manding a spontaneous admiration from all 
who look on them — may not this similarity of 
outward form be accompanied by a total dis- 
similarity of inward nature ? Is the external 
appearance the truest criterion of the ultimate 
nature ? Or, as in the crystal and the shell, 
may there not exist distinctions more profound 
and basal? The distinctions drawn between 
men, in short, are commonly based on the out- 
ward appearance of goodness or badness, on the 
ground of moral beauty or moral deformity — • 
is this classification scientific ? Or is there a 
deeper distinction between the Christian and 
the not-a-Christian as fundamental as that 
between the organic and the inorganic? 

There can be little doubt, to begin with, that 
with the great majority of people religion is 
regarded as essentially one with morality. 
Whole schools of philosophy have treated the 
Christian Religion as a question of beauty, and 
discussed its place among other systems of 
ethics. Even those systems of theology which 
profess to draw a deeper distinction have rarely 
succeeded in establishing it upon any valid 
basis, or seem even to have made that distinc- 
tion perceptible to others. So little, indeed, has 



356 CLASSIFICATION. 

the rationale of the science of religion been 
understood that there is still no more unsatis- 
factory province in theology than where mor- 
ality and religion are contrasted, and the ad- 
justment attempted between moral philosophy 
and wdiat are known as the doctrines of grace. 
Examples of this confusion are so numerous 
that if one were to proceed to proof he would 
have to cite almost the entire European phi- 
losophy of the last three hundred years. From 
Spinoza downward through the whole natural- 
istic school, Moral Beauty is persistently re- 
garded as synonymous with religion and the 
spiritual life. The most earnest thinking of 
the present day is steeped in the same con- 
fusion. We have even the remarkable spec- 
tacle presented to us just now of a sublime 
Morality-Religion divorced from Christianity 
altogether, and wedded to the baldest form of 
materialism. It is claimed, moreover, that the 
moral scheme of this high atheism is loftier and 
more perfect than that of Christianity, and 
men are asked to take their choice as if the 
morality were everything, the Cliristianity or 
the a'theism which nourished it being neither 
here nor there. Others, again, studying this 
moral beauty carefully, have detected a some- 
thing in its Christian forms which has com- 
pelled them to declare that a distinction cer- 
tainly exists. But in scarcely a single instance 
is the gravity of the distinction more than 
dimly apprehended. Few conceive of it as 
other than a difference of degree, or could give 
a more definite account of it than Mr. Matthew 



CLASSIFICATION, 357 

Arnold's " Religion is morality touched by 
Emotion " — an utterance significant mainly as 
the testimony of an acute mind that a dis- 
tinction of some kind does exist. In a recent 
Symposium where the question as to " The in- 
fluence upon Morality of a decline in Religious 
Belief," was discussed at length by writers of 
whom this century is justly proud, there ap- 
pears scarcely so much as a recognition of the 
fathomless chasm separating the leading terms 
of debate. 

If beauty is the criterion of religion, this 
view of the relation of religion to morality is 
justified. But what if there be the same dif- 
ference in the beauty of two separate characters 
that there is between the mineral and the 
shell ? What if there be a moral beauty and a 
spiritual beauty? What answer shall we get 
if we demand a more scientific distinction 
between characters than that based on mere 
outward form? It is not enough from the 
standpoint of biological religion to say of two 
characters that both are beautiful. For, again, 
nb fundamental distinction in Science depends 
upon beauty. We ask an answer in terms of 
biology, are they flesh or spirit ; are they living 
or dead ? 

If this is really a scientific question, if it is a 
question not of moral philosophy only, but of 
biology, we are compelled to repudiate beauty 
as the criterion of spirituality. It is not, of 
course, meant by this that spirituality is not 
morally beautiful. Spirituality must be morally 
very beautiful— so much so that popularly one 



358 CLASSIFICATION. 

is justified in judging of religion by its beauty. 
Nor is it meant that morality is not a crite- 
rion. All that is contended for is tliat, from 
the scientific standpoint, it is not the criterion. 
We can judge of the crystal and the shell from 
many other standpoints besides those named, 
each classification having an importance in its 
own sphere. Thus we might class them ac- 
cording to their size and weight, their percent- 
age of silica, their use in the arts, or their com- 
mercial value. Each science or art is entitled 
to regard tliem from its own point of view; 
and when the biologist announces his classifi- 
cation he does not interfere with those based 
on other grounds. Only, having chosen his 
standpoint, he is bound to frame his classifi- 
cation in terms of it. 

It may be well to state emphatically, that 
in proposing a new classification — or rather, 
in reviving the i3rimitive one — in the spiritual 
sphere we leave untouched, as of supreme 
value in its own province, the test of morality. 
Morality is certainly a test of religion — for 
most practical purposes the very best test. 
And so far from tending to depreciate morality, 
the bringing into prominence of the true basis 
is entirely in its interests — in the interests of 
a moral beauty, indeed, infinitely surjDassing 
the highest attainable perfection on merely 
natural lines. 

The warrant for seeking a further classifica- 
tion is twofold. It is a principle in science 
that classification should rest on the most 
basal characteristics. To determine what 



CLASSIFICATION. 359 

these fire may not always be easy, but it is at 
least evident that a classification framed on 
the ultimate nature of organisms must be 
more distinctive than one based on external 
characters. Before the principles of classifica- 
tion were understood, organisms were invaria- 
bly arranged according to some merely exter- 
nal resemblance. Thus plants were classed 
according to size a,s Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees; 
and animals according to their appearance as 
Birds, Beasts, and Fishes. The Bat upon this 
principle was a bird, the Whale a fish ; and so 
thoroughly artificial were these early systems 
that animals were often tabulated among the 
plants, and plants among the animals. "In 
early attempts," says Herbert Spencer, "to 
arrange organic beings in some systematic 
manner, we see at first a guidance by conspic- 
uous and simple characters, and a tendency 
toward arrangement in lineal order. In suc- 
cessively later attempts, we see more regard 
paid to combinations of characters which are 
essential but often inconspicuous ; and a grad- 
ual abandonment of a linear arrangement for 
an arrangement in divergent groups and re- 
divergent sub-groups.^ Almost all the natural 
sciences have already passed through these 
stages ; and one or two which rested entirely 
on external characters have all but ceased to 
exist — Conchology, for example, which has 
yielded its place to Malacology. Following in 
the wake of the other sciences, the classifica- 



1 " 



Principles of Biology," p. 294. 



360 CLA SSIFICA TION, 

tions of Theology may have to be remodelled 
in the same way. The popular classification, 
whatever its merits from a practical point of 
view, is essentially a classification based on 
Morphology. The whole tendency of science 
now is to include along with morphological 
considerations the profounder generalizations 
of Physiology and Embryology. And the con- 
tribution of the latter science especially has 
been found so important that biology hence- 
forth must look for its classification largely to 
Embryological character. 

But apart from the demand of modern scien* 
tific culture it is palpably foreign to Christian- 
ity, not merely as a Fhiloso]3hy but as a 
Biology, to classify men only in terms of the 
former. And it is somewhat remarkable that 
the writers of both the Old and New Testa- 
ments seem to have recognized the deeper 
basis. The favorite classification of the Old 
Testament was into " the nations which knew 
God " and " the nations which knew not God " 
— a distinction which we have formerly seen 
to be, at bottom, biological. In the New Tes- 
tament again tlie ethical characters are more 
prominent, but the cardinal distinctions based 
on regeneration, if not always actually referred 
to, are throughout kept in view, both in the 
sayings of Christ and ni the Epistles. 

What then is the deeper distinction drawn 
by Christianity ? What is the essential differ- 
ence between the Christian and the not-a-Chris- 
tian, between the spiritual beauty and the mor- 
al beauty ? It is the distinction between the 



CLASSIFICATION. 361 

Organic and the Inorganic. Moral beauty is 
the product of the natural man, spiritual 
beauty of the spiritual man. And tliese two, 
according to the law of Biogenesis, are sepa- 
rated from one another by the deepest line 
known to Science. Tliis Law is at once the 
foundation of Biology and of Spiritual religion. 
And the wliole fabric of Christianity falls into 
confusion if we attempt to ignore it. Tlie 
LaAV of Biogenesis, in fact, is to be regarded 
as tlie equivalent in biology of the First Law 
of Motion in pliysics : Bjvery body continues 
in its state of rest or of unifor7n ^notion in a 
straight line^ except in so far as it is compelled 
by forces to change that state. The first Law 
of biology is : That wliich is Mineral is Min- 
eral ; that wliich is Flesh is Flesh ; that which 
is Spirit is Spirit. The mineral remains in the 
inorganic world until it is seized upon by a 
something called Life outside the inorganic 
world ; the natural man remains the natural 
man, until a Spiritual Life from without the 
natural life seizes upon him, regenerates him, 
changes him into a spiritual man. The peril of 
the illustration from the law of motion Avill 
not be felt at least by those who appreciate the 
distinction between Physics and Biology, be- 
tween Energy and Life. The change of state, 
here is not as in physics a mere change of direc- 
tion, the affections directed to a new object, the 
will into a new channel. The change involves 
all this, but is something deeper. It is a 
change of nature, a regeneration, a passing from, 
death into life. Hence relatively to this higher 



362 CLASSIFICATION. 

life the natural life is no longer Life, but 
Death, and the natural man from the stand- 
point of Christianity is dead. Whatever 
assent the mind may give to this proposition, 
however much it has been overlooked in the 
past, however it compares with casual observa- 
tion, it is certain that the Founder of the Chris- 
tian religion intended this to be the keystone 
of Christianity. In the proposition That icldch 
is flesh is fleshy and that ichich is spirit is spirit^ 
Christ formula-tes the first law of biological 
religion, and lays the basis for a final classifi- 
cation. He divides men into two classes, the 
living and the not-living. And Paul after- 
wards carries out the classification consistentl}^ 
making his entire system depend on it, and 
throughout arranging men, on the one hand as 
T.^>zoixaTiyJ)z — spiritual, on the other as (foyud': — 
carnal, in terms of Christ's distinction. 

Suppose now it be granted for a moment 
that the character of the not-a-Christian is as 
beautiful as that of the Christian. This is 
simply to say that the crystal is as beautiful 
as the organism. One is quite entitled to hold 
this ; but what he is not entitled to hold is 
that both in the same sense are living. lie 
that hath the Son has lAfe^ and he that hath not 
the Son of God has not Life. And in the face 
of this law, no other conclusion is possible than 
that that which is flesh remains flesh. No 
matter how great the development of beauty, 
that which is flesli is withal flesli. The 
elaborateness or the perfection of the moral 
development in any given instance can do 



CLASSIFICATION. 363 

nothing to break dawn this distinction. Man 
is a moral animal, and can, and ouglit to, 
arrive at great natural beauty of character. 
But this is simply to obey the law of his nature 
— the law of his flesh ; and no progress along 
that line can project him into tlie spiritual 
sphere. If any one choose to claim that the 
mineral beauty, the fleshly beauty, the natural 
moral beauty, is all he covets, he is entitled to 
his claim. To be good and true, pure and 
benevolent in the moral sphere, are high, and,- 
so far, legitimate objects of life. If he delib- 
erately stop here, he is at liberty to do so. But 
what he is not entitled to do is to call himself a 
Christian, or to claim to discharge the func- 
tions peculiar to the Christian life. His mor- 
ality is mere crystallization, the crystallizing 
forces having had fair play in his development. 
But these forces have no more touched the 
sphere of Christianity than the frost on the 
window-pane can do more than simulate the 
external forms of life. And if he considers 
that the high development to w^hich he has 
reached may pass by an insensible transition 
into spirituality, or that his moral nature of it- 
self may flash into the flame of regenerate Life, 
he has to be reminded that in spite of the ap- 
parent connection of these things from one 
standpoint, from another there is none at all, 
or none discoverable by us. On the one hand, 
there being no such thing as Spontaneous 
Generation, his moral nature, however it may 
encourage it, cannot generate Life ; v/hile, on 
the other, his high organization can never in 



364 CLASSIFICATION. 

itself result in Life, Life being always the cause 
of organization and never tlie effect of it. 

The practical question may now be asked, is 
this distinction palpable ? Is it a mere conceit 
of Science, or what human interests attach to 
it? If it cannot be proved that the resulting 
moral or spiritual beauty is higher in the one 
case than in the other, the biological distinc- 
tion is useless. And if the objection is pressed 
that the spiritual man has nothing further to 
effect in the direction of morality, seeing that 
the natural man can successfully compete with 
him, the questions thus raised become of 
serious significance. That objection would cer- 
tainly be fatal which could show that the 
spiritual world was not as high in its demand 
for a lofty morality as the natural ; and that 
biology would be equally false and dangerous 
winch should in the least encourage the view 
that " without holiness " a man could " seethe 
Loi'd." These questions accordingly we must 
briefly consider. It is necessary to premise 
however, that the difficulty is not peculiar to 
the present position. This is simply the old 
difficulty of distinguishing spirituality and 
morality. 

In seeking whatever light Science may have 
to offer as to the difference between the natural 
and the spiritual man, we first submit the 
question to Embryology. And if its actual 
contribution is small, Ave shall at least be in- 
debted to it for an important reason why the 
difficulty should exist at all. That there is 
grave difficulty in deciding between two given 



CLASSIFICATION. 365 

characters, the one natural, the other spiritual, 
is conceded. But if we can find a sufficient 
justification for so perplexing a circumstance, 
the fact loses weight as an objection, and the 
whole problem is placed on a difterent foot- 
ing. 

The difference on the score of beauty be- 
tween the crystal and the shell, let us say once 
more, is imperceptible. But fix attention for a 
moment, not upon their appearance, but upon 
their possibilities, upon their relation to the- 
future, and upon their place in evolution. The 
crystal has reached its ultimate stage of devel- 
opment. It can never be more beautiful than 
it is now. Take it to pieces and give it the 
opportunity to beautify itself afresh, and it 
will just do the same thing over again. It will 
form its^elf into a six-sided pyramid, and go on 
repeating this same form ad hijlmtum as often 
as it is dissolved, and without ever improving 
b}^ a hair's-breadth. Its law of crystallization 
allows it to reach this limit, and nothing else 
within its kingdom can do any more for it. In 
dealing with the crystal, in short, we are deal- 
ing with the maximum beauty of the inorganic 
world. But in dealing with the shell, we are 
not dealing with the maximum achievement of 
the organic world. In itself it is one of the 
humblest forms of the invertebrate sub-king- 
dom of the organic world; and there are other 
forms within this kingdom so different from 
the shell in a hundred respects that to mistake 
them would simply be impossible. 

In dealing with a man of fine moral char- 



366 LASSIFICATION. 

acter, again, we are dealing with the highest 
achievement of the organic kingdom. But in 
dealing with a spiritual man we are dealing 
with the loicest form of life in the spiritual 
vjorld. To contrast the two, therefore, and 
marvel that the one is apparently so little 
better than the other, is unscientific and un- 
just. The spiritual man is a mere unformed 
embryo, hidden as yet in his earthly chrysalis- 
case, while the natural man has the breeding 
and evolution of ages represented in his char- 
acter. But what are the possibilities of this 
spiritual organism ? What is yet to emerge 
from this chrysalis-case ? The natural char- 
acter finds its limits within the organic sphere. 
But who is to define the limits of the spiritual ? 
Even now it is very beautiful. Even as an 
embryo it contains some prophecy of its future 
glory. But the point to mark is, that*^^^ cloth 
not yet appear what it shall he. 

The want of organization, thus, does not sur- 
prise us. All life begins at the Amoeboid stage. 
Evolution is from the simple to the complex ; 
and in every case it is some time before organ- 
ization is advanced enough to admit of exact 
classification. A naturalist's only serious 
difficulty in classification is when he comes 
to deal with low or embryonic forms. It is 
impossible, for instance, to mistake an oak for 
an elephant ; but at the bottom of the vege- 
table series, and at the bottom of the animal 
series, there are organisms of so doubtful a 
character that it is equally impossible to dis- 
tinguish them. So formidable, indeed, has 



CLA SSIFICA TION. 367 

been this difficulty that Ilaeckel has had to 
propose an intermediate regnmn protisticum to 
contain those forms the rudimentary character 
of which makes it impossible to apply the de- 
termining tests. 

We mention this merely to sho>y the diffi- 
culty of classification and not for analogy ; 
for the proper analogy is not between vege- 
table and animal forms, whether high or low, 
but between the living and the dead. And 
here the difficulty is certainly not so great. 
By suitable tests it is generally possible to dis- 
tinguish the organic from the inorganic. The 
ordinary eye may fail to detect the difference, 
and inimmerable forms are assigned by the 
popular judgment to the inorganic world which 
are nevertheless undoubtedly alive. And it is 
the same in the spiritual world. To a cursory 
glance these rudimentary spiritual forms may 
not seem to exhibit the phenomena of Life;,and 
therefore the living and the dead may be often 
classed as one. But let the appropriate scien- 
tific tests be applied. In the almost amor- 
phous organism, the physiologist ought already 
to be able to detect the symptoms of a dawning 
life. And further research might even bring 
to light some faint indication of the lines along 
w^hich the future development was to proceed. 
Now it is not impossible that among the tests 
for Life there may be some which may fitly be 
applied to the spiritual organism. We may 
therefore at this point hand over the problem 
to Physiology. 

The tests for Life are of two kinds. It is re- 



368 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

markable that one of them was proposed, in 
the spiritual sphere, by Christ. Foreseeing the 
difficulty of determining the characters and 
functions of rudimentary organisms, He sug- 
gested that the point be decided by a further 
evolution. Time for development was to be 
allowed, during which the marks of Life, if 
any, would become more pronounced, while in 
the meantime judgment was to be suspended. 
"Let both grow together," he said, ''until the 
harvest." This is a thoroughly scientific test. 
Obviously, however, it cannot assist us for the 
]3resent — except in the way of enforcing ex- 
treme caution in attempting any classification 
at all. 

The second test is at least not so manifestly 
impracticable. It is to apply the ordinary meth- 
ods by which biology attempts to distinguish 
the organic from the inorganic. The charac- 
teristics of Life, according to Physiology, are 
four in number — Assimilation, Waste, Repro- 
duction, and Spontaneous Action. If an or- 
ganism is found to exercise these functions, it 
is said to be alive. Xow these tests, in a 
spiritual sense, might fairly be applied to the 
spiritual man. Tlie experiment would be a 
delicate one. It might not be open to every 
one to attempt it. This is a scientific ques- 
tion ; and the experiment would liave to be 
conducted under proper conditions and by 
competent persons. But even on the first 
statement it will be plain to all who are famil- 
iar with spiritual diagnosis that the experi- 
ment could 1)6 made, and especially on oneself, 



CLASSIFICATION. 369 

with some hope of success. Biological con- 
siderations, however, would warn us not to 
expect too much. Whatever be tlie inadequacy 
of Morphology, Physiology can never be stud- 
ied apart from it ; and the investigation of 
function merely as function is a task of extreme 
difficulty. Mr. Herbert Spencer affirms, '' We 
have next to no power of tracing up the gen- 
esis of a function considered purely as a func- 
tion — no opportunity of observing the pro- 
gressively-increasing quantities of a given 
action that have arisen in any order of organ- 
isms. In nearly all cases we are able only to 
establish the greater growth of the part which 
we have found performs the action, and to 
infer that greater action of the part has accom- 
panied greater growth of it." ^ Such being 
the case, it would serve no purpose to indicate 
the details of a barely possible experiment. 
We are merely showing, at the moment, that 
the question " How do I know that I am alive " 
is not, in the spiritual sphere, incapable of 
solution. One might, nevertheless, single out 
some distinctively spiritual function and ask 
himself if he consciously discharged it. The 
discharging of that function is, upon biological 
principles, equivalent to being alive, and there- 
fore the subject of the experiment could cer- 
tainly come to some conclusion as to his place 
on a biological scale. The real significance of 
his actions on the moral scale might be less 
easy to determine, but he could at least tell 



"Principles of Biology," vol. ii. pp. 222, 223. 
24 



370 CLASSIFICA TION, 

where he stood as tested hy the standard of 
life — he would know whether he was hving or 
dead. After all, the best test of Life is just 
liviyig. And living consists, as we have for- 
merly seen, in corresponding with Environ- 
ments. Those therefore who find within them- 
selves, and regularly exercise, the faculties for 
corresponding with the Divine Environment, 
may l)e said to live the Spiritual Life. 

That this Life also, even in the embryonic 
organism, ought already to betray itself to 
others, is certainly what one would expect. 
Every organism has its own reaction upon. 
Nature, and the reaction of the spiritual or- 
ganism upon the community must be looked 
for. Li the absence of any such reaction, in 
the absence of any token that it lived for a 
higher purpose, or that its real interests were 
those of the Kingdom to which it professed to 
belong, w^e should be entitled to question its 
being in that Kingdom. It is obvious that 
each Kingdom has its own ends and interests, 
its own functions to discharge in Nature. It 
is also a law that every organism lives for its 
Kingdom. And man's place in Xature, or his 
position among the kingdoms, is to be decided 
by the characteristic functions habitually 
discharged by him. Xow wl]en the habits of 
certain individuals are closely observed, when 
the total effect of their life and work, with 
regard to the communit}^, is gauged — as care- 
fully observed and gauged as the influence of 
certain individuals in a colony of ants might 
be observed and gauged by Sir John Lubbock 



CLASSIFICATION. 371 

— there ought to be no difficulty in deciding 
whether they are living for the Organic or for 
the Spiritual ; in plainer language, for the 
world or for God. Tlie question of Kingdoms, 
at least, would be settled without mistake 
The place of any given individual in his own 
Kingdom is a different matter. That is a 
question possibly for ethics. But from the 
biological standpoint, if a man is living for the 
w^orlcl it is immateiial how well he lives for it. 
He ought to live well for it. However im- 
portant it is for his own Kingdom, it does not 
affect his biological relation to the other King- 
dom whether his character is perfect or imper- 
fect. He may even to some extent assume the 
outward form of organism belonging to the 
higher Kingdom ; but so long as his reaction 
upon the world is the reaction of his species, 
he is to be classed with his species, so long as 
the bent of his life is in the direction of the 
world, he remains a worldling. 

Recent botanical and entomological researches 
have made Science familiar witli what is 
termed Mimicry. Certain organisms in one 
Kingdom assume, for purposes of their own, 
the outward form of organisms belonging to 
another. This curious hypocrisy is practised 
both by plants and animals, the object being to 
secure some personal advantage, usually safety, 
which would be denied were the organism 
always to play its part in ISTature in propria 
persona. Thus the Ceroxylus laceratus of Bor- 
neo has assumed so perfectly the disguise of a 
moss-covered branch as to evade the attack of 



372 CLASSIFICATION. 

insectivorous birds ; and others of the walking- 
stick hisects and leaf-butterilies practise similar 
deceptions with great effrontery and success. 
It is a striking result of the indirect influence 
of Christianity, or of a spurious Christianity, 
that the religious world has come to be popu- 
lated — how largely one can scarce venture to 
think — with mimetic species. In few cases, 
probably, is this a conscious deception. lu 
many doubtless it is induced, as in Ceroxylus^ 
by the desire for safety. But in a majority of 
instances it is the natural effect of the prestige 
of a great system upon those who, coveting its 
benedictions, yet fail to understand its true 
nature, or decline to bear its profounder re- 
sponsibilities. It is here that the test of Life 
becomes of supreme importance. Xo classifi- 
cation on the ground of form can exclude 
mimetic species, or discover them to them- 
selves. But if man's place among the King- 
doms is determined by his functions, a careful 
estimate of his life in itself and in its reaction 
upon surrounding lives, ought at once to 
betray his real position. No matter what may 
be the moral uprightness of his life, the hon- 
orableness of his career, or the orthodoxy of 
his creed, if he exei'cises the function of loving 
the world, that defines his world — lie belongs 
to the Organic Kingdom. He cannot in that 
case belong to the higher Kingdom. " If any 
man love the world, the love of the Father is 
not in him." After all, it is by the general 
bent of a man's life, by his heart-impulses and 
secret desires, his spontaneous actions and 



CLASSIFICA TION, 373 

abiding motives, that his generation is de- 
clared. 

The exckisiveness of Christianity, separation 
from the world, uncompromising allegiance to 
the Kingdom of God, entire surrender of body, 
soul, and spirit to Christ — these are truths 
which rise into prominence from time to time, 
become the watchword of insignificant parties, 
rouse the church to attention and the world to 
opposition, and die down ultimately for want 
of lives to live them. The few enthusiasts 
who distinguish in these requirements the 
essential conditions of entrance into the King- 
dom of Christ are overpowered by the weight 
of numbers, who see nothing more in Christi- 
anity than a mild religiousness, and who de- 
mand nothing more in themselves or in their 
fellow-Christians than the participation in a 
conventional worship, the acceptance of tradi- 
tional beliefs, and the living of an honest life. 
Yet nothing is more certain than that the 
enthusiasts are right. Any impartial survey 
— such as the unique analysis in " Ecce Homo " 
— of the claims of Christ and of the nature of 
His society, will convince any one who cares 
to make the inquiry of the outstanding differ- 
ence between the system of Christianity in 
the original contemplation and its represent- 
ations in modern life. Christianity marks 
the advent of what is simply a new Kingdom. 
Its distinctions from the Kingdom below it are 
fundamental. It demands from its members 
activities and responses of an altogether novel 
order. It is, in the conception of its I^'ounder, 



374 CLASSIFICATION. 

a Kingdom for which all its adherents must 
henceforth exclusively live and work, and 
which opens its gates alone upon those who, 
having counted the cost, are prepared to follow 
it if need be to the death. The surrender 
Christ demanded was absolute. Every aspi- 
rant for membership must ^eok first the King- 
doiii of God. And in order to enforce the 
demand of allegiance, or rather with an uncon- 
sciousness which contains the finest evidence 
for its justice. He even assumed the title of 
King — a claim which in other circumstances, 
and were these not the symbols of a higher 
royalty, seems so strangely foreign to one who 
is meek and lowly in heart. 

Bat this imperious claim of a Kingdom upon 
its members is not peculiar to Christianity. 
It is the law in all departments of Nature that 
every organism must live for its Kingdom. 
And in defining living /br the higher King- 
dom as the condition of living in it, Christ 
enunciates a principle which all Natui-e has 
prepared us to expect. Every province has its 
peculiar exactions, every Kingdom levies upon 
its subjects the tax of an exclusive obedience, 
and punishes disloyalty always with death. 
It was the neglect of this principle — that every 
organism must live for its Kingdom if it is to 
live in it — which first slowly depopulated the 
spiritual world. The example of its Founder 
ceased to find imitators, and the consecration 
of His early followers came to be regarded as 
a superfluous enthusiasm. And it is this same 
misconception of the fundamental principle 



CLASSIFICATION. 875 

of all Kingdoms that has deprived modern 
Christianity of its vitality. The failure to re- 
gard the exclusive claims of Christ as more 
than accidental, rhetorical, or ideal ; the fail- 
ure to discern the essential difference between 
his Kingdom and all other systems based on 
the lines of natural religion, and therefore 
merely Organic ; in a word, the general neglect 
of the claims of Christ as the Founder of a 
new and higher Kingdom — these have taken 
the very heart from the religion of Christ and 
left its evangel without power to impress or 
bless the world. Until even religious men see 
the uniqueness of Christ's society, until they 
acknowledge to the full extent its claim to be 
nothing less than a new Kingdom, they will 
continue the hopeless attempt to live for two 
Kingdoms at once. And hence the value of a 
more explicit Classification. For probably the 
most of the difficulties of trying to live the 
Christian life arise from attempting to half- 
live it. 

As a merely verbal matter, this identification 
of the Spiritual World with what are known 
to Science as Kingdoms, necessitates an ex- 
planation. The suggested relation of the 
Kingdom of Christ to the Mineral and Animal 
Kingdom does not, of course, depend upon 
the accident that the Spiritual World is named 
in the sacred writings by the same word. 
This certainly lends an appearance of fancy 
to the generalization : and one feels tempted 
at first to dismiss it with a smile. But, in 
truth, it is no mere play on the word Kingdom. 



376 CLASSIFICATION. 

Science demands the classification of every 
organism. And here is an organism of a 
U]iique kind, a living energetic spirit, a new 
creature which, by an act of generation, has 
been begotten of God. Starting from the point 
that the spiritual life is to be studied bio- 
logically, we must at once proceed, as the first 
step in the scientific examination of this organ- 
ism, to enter it in its appropriate class. Now 
two Kingdoms, at the present time, are known 
to Science — the Inorganic and the Organic. 
It does not belong to the Inorganic Kingdom, 
because it lives. It does not belong to the 
Organic Kingdom, because it is endowed with 
a kind of Life infinitely removed from either 
the vegetal or animal. Where then shall it be 
classed? We are left without an alternative. 
There being no Kingdom known to Science 
which can contain it, we must construct one. 
Or rather we must include in the programme 
of Science a Kingdom already constructed but 
the place of which in science has not yet been 
recognized. That Kingdom is the Kingdora of 
God 

Taking now this larger view of the content 
of science, we may leave the case of the individ- 
ual and pass on to outline the scheme of Xature 
as a whole. The general conception will be as 
follows : — 

First, we find at the bottom of everything 
the Mineral or Inorganic Kingdom. Its charac- 
teristics are, first, that so far as the sphere 
above it is concerned it is dead ; second, that 
although dead it furnishes the physical basis of 



CLA SSIFICA TlOm 87 7 

life to the Kingdom next in order. It is thus 
absolutely essential to the Kingdom above it. 
And the more minutely the detailed structure 
and ordering of the whole fabric are invest- 
igated it becomes increasingly apparent that 
the Inorganic Kingdom is the preparation for, 
and the prophecy of, the Organic. 

Second, we come to the world next in order, 
the world containing plant, and animal, and 
man, the Organic Kingdom. Its characteristics 
are, first, that so far as the sphere above it is 
concerned it is dead; and, second, although 
dead it supplies in turn the basis of life to the 
Kingdom next in order. And the more mi- 
nutely the detailed structure and ordering of 
the whole fabric are investigated, it is obvious, 
in turn, that the Organic Kingdom is the prep- 
aration for, and the prophecy of, the Spirit- 
ual. 

Third, and highest, we reach the Spiritual 
Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Heaven. What 
its characteristics are, relatively to any hypo- 
thetical higher Kingdom, necessarily remain 
unknown. That the Spiritual, in turn, may 
be the preparation for, and the prophecy of, 
something still higher is not impossible. But 
the very conception of a Fourth Kingdom tran- 
scends us, and if it exist, the Spiritual organism, 
by the analogy, must remain at present wholly 
dead to it. 

The warrant for adding this Third Kingdom 
consists, as just stated, in the fact that there 
are organisms which from their peculiar origin, 
nature, and destiny cannot be fitly enterec in 



378 CLASSIFICATION. 

either of the two Kingdoms now known to 
science. The Second Kingdom is proclaimed 
by the advent upon the stage of tlie First, of 
once-born organisms. The Tliird is ushered 
in by the appearance, among these once-born 
organisms, of forms of life which have been 
born again — tioice-born organisms. The classi- 
fication, therefore, is based, from the scientific 
side on certain facts of embryology and on the 
Law of Biogenesis ; and from the theological 
side on certain facts of experience and on the 
doctrine of Regeneration. To those who hold 
either to Biogenesis or to Regeneration, there 
is no escape from a Third Kingdom.^ 

There is, in this conception of a high and 
spiritual organism rising out of the highest 
point of the Organic Kingdom, in the hypoth- 
esis of the Spiritual Kingdom itself, a Third 
Kingdom following the Second in sequence as 

Philosophical classifications in this direction (see for 
instance Godet's "Old Testament Studies," pp. 2-40), 
owing to their neglect of the facts of Biogenesis can 
never satisfy the biologist — any more than the above will 
wholly satisfy the philosopher. Botl^ are needed. 
Kothe in his " Aphorisms, strikingly notes one point : 
*' Es ist beach tens werth, wie in derSchopfiing immer aus 
der Auflosung der niichst niederen Stufe die niichst hohere 
hervorgeht, so dass jene immer das Substrat znr Erzeu- 
gung dieser Kraft der schopferischen Einwirkung bildet. 
(Wie es denn nicht anders sein kann bei einer Entwick- 
lung der Kreatur ans sich selbst.) Aus den zersetzten 
Elementen erheben sich das Mineral, aus dem verwitter* 
ten ^[aterial die Pflanze, aus der verwesten Pflanze das 
Thier. So erhebt sich audi aus dem in die Elemente 
zuriicksinkeiidon Materiellen Menschen der Geist, das 
geistige Geschopf." — " Stille Stun den," p. 64. 



CLASSIFICATION. 379 

orderly as the Second follows the First, a King- 
dom utilizing the materials of both the King- 
doms beneath it, continuing their laws, and, 
above all, accounting for these lower Kingdoms 
in a legitimate way and complementing them 
in the only known way — there is in all this a 
suggestion of the greatest of modern scientific 
doctrines, the Evolution hypothesis, too im- 
pressive to pass unnoticed. The strength of the 
doctrine of Evolution, at least in its broader out- 
lines, is now such that its verdict on any biologi- 
cal question is a consideration of moment." And 
if any further defence is needed for the idea 
of a Third Kingdom it may be found in the 
singular harmony of the whole conception with 
this great modern truth. It might even be 
asked whether a complete and consistent 
theory of Evolution does not really demand 
such a conception? Why should Evolution 
stop with the Organic ? It is surely obvious 
that the complement of Evolution is Advolu- 
tion, and the inquiry. Whence has all this 
system of things come, is, after all, of minor 
importance compared with the question, 
Whither does all this tend? Science, as such, 
may have little to say on such a question. 
And it is perhaps impossible, with such facul- 
ties as we now possess, to imagine an Evolution 
with a future as great as its past. So stupend- 
ous is the development from the atom to the 
man that no point can be fixed in the future as 
distant from what man is now as he is from the 
atom. But it has been given to Christianity to 
disclose the lines of a further Evolution. And 



380 CLA SSIFICA TION. 

if Science also professes to offer a further Evolu- 
tion, not the most sanguine evolutionist will 
venture to contrast it, either as regards the dig- 
nity of its methods, the magnilicence of its 
aims, or the certainty of its hox)es, Avith the pros- 
pects of the Spiritual Khigdom. That Science 
has a prospect of some sort to hold out to man is 
not denied. But its limits are already marked. 
Mr. Herbert Spencer, after investigating its 
possibilities fully, tells us, " Evolution has an 
impassable limit." ^ It is the distinct claim of 
the third Kingdom that this limit is not final. 
Christianity opens a way to a further develop- 
ment — a development apart from which the 
magnificent past of K'ature has been in vain, 
and without which Organic Evolution, in spite 
of the elaborateness of its processes and the 
vastness of its achievements, is simply a 
stupendous cvl de sac. Far as Natu]'e carries 
on the task, vast as is the distance between 
the atom and the man, she has to lay down her 
tools when the woi'k is just begun. Wan, her 
most rich and finished product, marvellous in 
his complexity, all but Divine in sensibility, is 
to the Third Kingdom not even a shapeless 
embryo. The old chain of processes must 
begin again on the higher plane if there is to 
be a farther Evolution. The highest organism 
of the Second Kingdom — simple, immobile, 
dead as the inorganic crystal, towards the 
sphere above — must be vitalized afresh. Then 
from a mass of all but homogeneous "pro- 

1 "■ First Principles," p. 440. 



CLASSIFICATION, 381 

toplasm " the organism must pass through all 
the stages of differentiation and integration, 
growing in perfectness and beauty under 
the unfolding of the higher Evolution, until it 
reaches the Infinite Complexity, the Infinite 
SensibiUty, God. So the spiritual carries on the 
marvellous process to which all lower ]N'ature 
ministers, and perfects it when the ministry of 
lower Nature fails. 

This conception of a further Evolution carries 
with it the final answer to the charge that, as 
regards morality, the Spiritual world has noth- 
ing to offer man that is not already within his 
reach. Will it be contended that a perfect 
morality is already within the i*each of the 
natural man? What product of the organic 
creation has ever attained to the fulness of the 
stature of Him who is the Founder and Type 
of the Spiritual Kingdom? What do men 
know of the qualities enjoined in His Beati- 
tudes, or at what value do they even estimate 
them ? Proved by results, it is surely already 
decided that on merely natural lines moral 
perfection is unattainable. And even Science 
is beginning to waken to the momentous truth 
that Man, the highest product of the Organic 
Kingdom, is a disappointment. But even were 
it otherwise, if even in prospect the hopes of 
the Organic Kingdom could be justified, its 
standard of beauty is not so high, nor, in spite 
of the dreams of Evolution, is its guarantee 
so certain. The goal of the organisms of the 
Spiritual World is nothing less than this — to 
be '' holy as He is holy, and pure as He is pure." 



382 CLASSIFICA TION, 

And by the Law of Conformity to Type, their 
final perfection is secured. The inward nature 
must develop out according to its Type, until 
the consummation of oneness with God is 
reached. 

These proposals of the Spiritual Kingdom in 
the direction of Evolution are at least entitled 
to be carefully considered b}^ Science. Christ- 
ianity defines the highest conceivable future for 
mankind. It satisfies the Law of Continuity. 
It guarantees the necessary conditions for 
cari'yiug on the organism successfully, from 
stage to stage. It provides against the ten- 
dency to Degeneration. And finalh^, instead 
of limiting the yearning hope of final perfection 
to the organisms of a future age, — an age so 
remote that the hope for thousands of years 
must still be hopeless, — instead of inflicting 
this cruelty on intelUgences mature enough to 
know perfection and earnest enough to wish it, 
Christianity puts the prize within innnediate 
reach of man. 

This attempt to incorporate tlie Spiritual 
Kingdom in the scheme of Evohition, may be 
met by what seems at first sight a fatal ob- 
jection. So far from the idea of a Spiritual 
Kingdom being in harmony with the doctrine 
of Evolution, it may be said that it is violently 
opposed to it. It announces a new Kingdom 
starting off suddenly on a different plane and 
in direct viokition of the primary principle of 
development. Instead of carrying the organic 
evolution further on its own lines, theology at 
a given point interposes a sudden and hope- 



CLASSIFICATION. 383 

less barrier — the barrier between the natural 
and the spiritual — and insists that the evolu- 
tionary process must begin again at the begin- 
ning. At this point, in fact, Nature acts per 
saltum. This is no Evolution, but a Catas- 
trophe — such a Catastrophe as must be fatal to 
any consistent development hypothesis. 

On the surface this objection seems final — 
but it is only on the surface. It arises from 
taking a too narrow view of what Evolution 
is. It takes evolution in zoology for Evolu- 
tion as a whole. Evolution began, let us say, 
with some primeval nebulous mass in which 
lay potentially all future worlds. Under the 
evolutionary hand, the amorphous cloud broke 
up, condensed, took definite shape, and in the 
line of true development assumed a gradually 
increasing complexity. Finally there emerged 
the cooled and finished earth, highly dift'er- 
entiated, so to speak, complete and fully 
equipped. And what followed? Let it be 
well observed — a Catastrophe. Instead of 
carrying the process further, the Evolution, if 
this is JEvolution, here also abruptly stops. A 
sudden and hopeless barrier — the barrier be- 
tween the Inorganic and the Organic — inter- 
poses, and the process has to begin again at 
the beginning with the creation of Life. Here 
then is a barrier placed by Science at the close 
of the Inorganic similar to the barrier placed 
by Theology at the close of the Organic. 
Science has used every effort to abolish this 
first barrier, but there it still stands challeng- 
ing the attention of the modern world, and 



884 CLASSIFICATION. 

no consistent theory of Evolution can fail to 
reckon with it. Any objection, then, to the 
Catastrophe introduced by Christianity be- 
tween the Natural and the Spiritual Kingdoms 
applies with equal force against the barrier 
which Science places between the Inorganic 
and the Organic. The reserve of Life in 
either case is a fact, and a fact of exceptional 
significance. 

What then becomes of Evolution? Do 
these two great barriers destroy it ? By no 
niertus. But they make it necessary to frame 
a larger doctrine. And the doctrine gains im- 
measurably by such an enlargement. For now 
the case stands thus : Evolution, in harmony 
with its own law that progress is from the 
simple to the complex, begins itself to pass 
towards the complex. The materialistic Evo- 
lution, so to speak, is a straight line. Making 
all else complex, it alone remains simple — un- 
scientifically simple. But as Evolution unfolds 
everything else, it is now seen to be itself 
slowly unfolding. The straight line is coming 
out gradually in curves. At a given point a 
new force appears deflecting it ; and at another 
given point a new force appears deflecting that. 
These points are not unrelated points ; these 
forces are not unrelated forces. The arrange- 
ment is still harmonious, and the development 
throughout obeys the evolutionary law in be- 
ing from the general to the special, from the 
lower to the higher. What we are reaching, 
in short, is nothing less than the evolution of 
Evolution, 



CLASSIFICATION, 385 

ISTow to both Science and Christianity, and 
especially to Science, this enrichment of Evo- 
lution is important. And, on the part of 
Christianity, the contribution to the system of 
Nature of a second barrier is of real scientific 
value. At first it may seem merely to increase 
the difficulty. But in reality it abolishes it. 
However paradoxical it seems, it is neverthe- 
less the case that two barriers are more easy 
to understand than one, — two mysteries are 
less mysterious than a single mystery. For 
it requires two to constitute a harmony. One 
by itself is a Catastrophe. But, just as the 
recurrence of an eclipse at different periods 
makes an eclipse no breach of Continuity ; just 
as the fact that the astronomical conditions 
necessary to cause a Glacial Period will in the 
remote future again be fulfilled constitutes the 
Great Ice Age a normal phenomenon ; so the 
recurrence of two periods associated with 
special phenomena of Life, the second higher, 
and by the law necessarily higher, is no viola- 
tion of the principle of Evolution. Thus even 
in the matter of adding a second to the one 
barrier of Nature, the Third Kingdom may al- 
ready claim to complement the Science of the 
Second. The overthrow of Spontaneous Gen- 
eration has left a break in Continuity which 
continues to put Science to confusion. Alone, 
it is as abnormal and perplexing to the intellect 
as the first eclipse. But if the Spiritual King- 
dom can supply Science with a companion-phe- 
nomenon, the most exceptional thing in the 
scientific sphere falls within the domain of 
25 



386 CLASSIFICATION. 

Law. This, however, is no more tliaii might 
be expected from a Third Kingdom. True to 
its place as the highest of the Kingdoms, it 
ought to embrace all that lies beneath and 
give to the First and Second their final ex- 
planation. 

How much more in the under-Kingdoms 
might be explained or illuminated upon this 
principle, however tempting might be the in- 
quiry, we cannot turn aside to ask. But the 
rank of the Third Kingdom in the order of 
Evolution implies that it holds the key to 
much that is obscure in the world around — 
much that, apart from it, must always 
remain obscure. A single obvious instance 
will serve to illustrate the fertility of the 
method. What has this Kingdom to con- 
tribute to Science with regard to the problem 
of the origin of Life itself? Taking this as an 
isolated phenomenon, neither the Second King- 
dom, nor the Third, apart from revelation, has 
anything to pronounce. But when vre observe 
the companion-phenomenon in the higher 
Kingdom, the question is simplified. It will 
be disputed by none that the source of Life in 
the Spiritual World is God. And as the same 
Law of Biogenesis prevails in both spheres, we 
may reason from the higher to the lower and 
affirm it to be at least likely that the origin of 
life there has been tlie same. 

There remains yet one other objection of a 
somewhat different order, and which is only 
referred to because it is certain to be raised by 
those who fail to appreciate the distinctions of 



CLASSIFICATION. 887 

Biology. Those whose sympathies are rather 
with Philosophy than with Science may incline 
to dispute the allocation of so high an organism 
as man to the merely vegetal and animal King- 
dom. Recognizing the immense moral and 
intellectual distinctions between him and even 
the highest animal, they would introduce a 
third barrier between man and animal — a bar- 
rier even greater than that between the Inor- 
ganic and the Organic. Now, no science can 
be blind to these distinctions. The only ques- 
tion is whether they are of such a kind as to 
make it necessary to classify man in a separate 
Kingdom. And to this the answer of Science 
is in the negative. Modern Science knows 
only two Kingdoms — the Inorganic and the 
Organic. A barrier between man and animal 
there may be, but it is a different barrier from 
that which separates Inorganic from Organic. 
But even were this to be denied, and in spite 
of all science it will be denied, it would make 
no difference as regards the general question. 
It would merely interpose another Kingdom 
between the Organic and the Spiritual, the 
other relations remaining as before. Any one, 
therefore, with a theory to support as to the 
exceptional creation of the Human Race will 
find the present classification elastic enough 
for his purpose. Philosophy, of course, may 
propose another arrangement of the Kingdoms 
if it chooses. It is only contended that this is 
the order demanded by Biology. To add 
another Kingdom mid-way between tlie Or- 
ganic and the Spiritual, could that be ]ustifi.ed 



388 CLASSIFICATION. 

at any future time on scientific grounds, would 
be a mere question of further detail. 

Studies in Classification, beginning with 
considerations of quality, usually end with 
a reference to quantity. And though one 
would Avillingly terminate the inquiry on the 
threshold of such a subject, the example of 
Revelation not less than the analogies of 
Nature press for at least a general statement. 

The broad impression gathered fi*om the ut- 
terances of the Founder of the Spiritual King- 
dom is that the number of organisms to be in- 
cluded in it is to be comparatively small. 
The outstanding characteristic of the new So- 
ciety is to be its selectness. " Many are called," 
said Christ, " but few are chosen." And when 
one recalls, on the one hand, the conditions of 
membership, and, on the other, observes the 
lives and aspirations of average men, the force 
of the verdict becomes apparent. In its bear- 
ing upon the general question, such a conclu- 
sion is not without suggestiveness. Here 
again is another evidence of the radical nature 
of Christianity. That " few are chosen " indi- 
cates a deeper view of the relation of Christ's 
Kingdom to the world, and stricter qualifica- 
tions of membership, than lie on the surface or 
are allowed for in the ordinary practice ot 
religion. 

The analogy of ISTature upon this point is 
not less striking — it may be added, not less 
solemn. It is an open secret, to be read in a 
hundred analogies from the world around, that 
of the millions of possible entrants for advance- 



CLASSIFICATION. 389 

ment in any department of Nature the number 
ultimately selected for preferment is small. 
Here also "many are called and few are 
chosen." The analogies from the waste of 
seed, of pollen, of human lives, are too familiar 
to be quoted. In certain details, possibly, 
these comparisons are inappropriate. But 
there are other analogies, wider and more just, 
which strike deeper into the system of Nature. 
A comprehensive view of the whole field of 
Nature discloses the fact that the circle of the 
chosen slowly contracts as we rise in the scale 
of being. Some mineral, but not all, becomes 
vegetable ; some vegetable, but not all, becomes 
animal ; some animal, but not all, becomes 
human, some human, but not all, becomes 
Divine. Thus the area narrows. At the base 
is the mineral, most broad and simple ; the 
spiritual at the apex, smallest, but most highly 
diJBCerentiated. So form rises above form. King- 
dom above Kingdom. Quantity decreases as 
quality iftcreases. 

The gravitation of the whole system of 
Nature towards quality is surely a phenomenon 
of commanding interest. And if among the 
more recent revelations of Nature there is one 
thing more significant for Religion than an- 
other, it is the majestic spectacle of the rise of 
Kingdoms towards scarcer yet nobler forms, 
and simpler yet diviner ends. Of the early 
stage, the first development of the earth from 
the nebulous matrix of space. Science speaks 
with reserve. The second, the evolution of 
each individual from the simple protoplasmic 



890 CLASSIFICATION. 

cell to the formed adult, is proved. The still 
wider evolution, not of solitary individuals, 
but of all the individuals within each province 
— in the vegetal world from the unicellular 
cryptogam to the highest x^hanerogam, in the 
animal world from the amorphous amoeba to 
Man — is at least suspected, the gradual rise of 
types being at all events a fact. But now, at 
last, we see the Kingdoms themselves evolving.- 
And that supreme law which has guarded the 
development from simple to complex in matter, 
in individual, in sub-Kingdom, and in Kingdom, 
mitil only two or three great Kingdoms re- 
main, now begin at the beginning again, direct- 
ing the evolution of these million-peopled worlds 
as if they were simple cells or organisms. 
Thus, what applies to the individual applies to 
the family, what applies to the family applies 
to the Kingdom, what applies to the Kingdom 
applies to the Kingdoms. And so, out of the 
infinite complexity there rises an infinite sim- 
plicity, the foreshadowing of a final unity, of 
that 

"One God, one law, one element, 

And one far-off divine event, 

To which the wliole creation moves." ^ 

This is the final triumph of Continuity, the 
heart secret of Creation, the unspoken pro- 
phecy of Christianity. To Science, defining it 
as a working principle, this mighty process of 
amelioration is simply Involution. To Christi- 
anity, discerning the end through the means, 

1 " In Memoriam." 



CLASSIFICATION. 391 

it is Bedemption, These silent and patient 
processes, elaborating, eliminating, developing 
all from the first of time, conducting the evolu- 
tion from millennium to millennium with un- 
altering purpose and unfaltering power, are the 
early stages in the redemptive work — the un- 
seen approach of that Kingdom whose strange 
mark is that it " cometh without observation." 
And these Kingdoms rising tier above tier in 
ever increasing sublimity and beauty, their 
foundations visibly fixed in the past, their pro- 
gress, and the direction of their progress, being 
facts in Nature still, are the signs which, since 
the Magi saw His star in the East, have never 
been wanting from the firmament of truth, and 
which in every age with growing clearness to 
the wise, and with ever-gathering mystery to 
the uninitiated, proclaim that " the Kingdom 
of God is at hand." 

Finis. 



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